The White Fang
by ZexionLover411
Summary: Rikku escaped from a secret facility as a child. She went back when she was 18 and burned the place to the ground. She's not exactly human and she's proud of it. But living in New York she's always had to hide what she loves about herself. A fight is coming and Fury wants her to be one of the Avengers. Follows Movie. OC/Banner OC/Hulk. slight OC/Steve
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avangers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot.

This story is based off and takes place during the Avengers movie. My first Avengers fic but definitely not my first fic.

Btw doing this on my phone/tablet cause I'm in FL on vaca w/o my laptop.

If the layout looks how it does in the doc manager I swear I will fix it on monday when I get home. I will also make this A/N bold. I cant do anything on my tablet.

I hope I do well with this story. Enjoy.

* * *

-Prologue-

Alarms blared and red lights flashed in the darkness as a 12 year old girl ran down a long hallway. She was dressed in a white hospital-gown-like shirt that matched the long hair that flowed behind her as her bare feet slapped against the cold cement floor. White cat-like ears were pressed flat against her head and a semi fluffy white tail poked out from the bottom of the shirt.

As the girl rounded a corner her unnaturally red eyes widened as she saw men with guns waiting. The girl skitted across the floor and scrambled back behind the wall as the men open fired. Her chest rose and fell quickly as she panted, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes shut tight. The gun fire stopped and the girl hesitantly peeked around the corner. The men were reloading their guns. The girl took the opportunity to run at them, dive between them, roll then get back up in a fluid motion before she took off running again.

* * *

The girl ran to another corner but stopped and listened this time. She tried to steady her breathing and held a hand over her own mouth to keep quiet.

"You idiots! We need her alive!" A man said into a radio. "Scare her if you must but don't fuckin shoot her! Shoot around her you morons! ... She's not going to get outside." The man said in response to someone. "There's no way she'll get past the blocks we've set up unless she can become invisible or go through walls and I doubt a cat freak would be able to do that." The girl frowned and and put her head against the wall behind her. She blinked and looked at an upper air vent, without a cover, across from her before smiling. She ran at the wall and jumped, grabbing onto the edge. Her body slammed into the cement wall with a soft almost inaudible thud. She grimace in slight pain before pulling herself up and inside; she was still small enough to crawl inside with some room left.

* * *

The girl made her way through the air vents, at times having to climb up to get to the next floor. She would put her back against the wall of the vent then walk up. She followed the scent of the ocean and eventually found the path to get outside. The exit to her freedom was covered with a metal cover. The girl frowned; the cover looked a bit rusted so she started to kick the cover until it flew out. She hopped out of the vent, and onto the cold sand below. She stood up and looked around.

* * *

The facility was on a man made island, in no way hidden, off the coast of New York. The facade was that it was a factory to prepare fish, caught nearby, to be shipped to New York. The first few floors were in fact just that. It was on the restricted sub-levels that held the building's true purpose.

A few boats were tied to a small dock nearby. One boat was for bringing ice to the facility, another was the fishing boat. There were a few other boats next to those. One boat, among the few, was getting loaded with crates. In the crates were ice and fish packed away.

The white haired girl moved through the darkness, across the sand, and made her way to the boat. The alarms from the lower levels could not be heard and the workers went on with their job as if it was just a normal night; to them it was. None of the workers knew what really happened below. The girl waited for the right moment before getting onboard the ship and hiding away.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Please note that after movie events I will have more things happen, I just wanted the story to start with the movie events. Plus it's one of my favorite movies. ^_^**

* * *

After the S.H.E.I.L.D. research facility had collapsed, Director Nick Fury and Agent Maria Hill tried to chase after Loki but failed to catch him and he escaped with Clint Barton aka Hawkeye and Dr. Selvig who were under his control as well as the briefcase containing the Tesseract.

"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Agent Phil Coulson said via a walkie talkie.

"The Tesseract is with the hostile force." Fury said. "I have men down. Hill?"

"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." Agent Hill said over her walkie talkie as she climbed out of a destroyed jeep.

"Sound the general call; I want every living soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase." Fury said.

"Roger that." Agent Hill said.

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war." Fury said.

"What do we do?" Phil asked. Fury lowered his walkie talkie and stared off.

* * *

It was early morning on a seemingly normal Tuesday. It was sunny and all looked peaceful with the world. People walked the sidewalks of New York City going about their lives. Some were business people heading off to another day like the last; stuck in a never ending routine. Some were tourists, wearing the cliché 'I HEART NY' shirts and looking up at the tall buildings and lights in awe. The streets were crowded and rows of taxi cabs lined almost every street. It seemed like just another normal, uneventful day.

In a small apartment bedroom a mess of snow white hair could be seen clearly poking out from under a bundle of black blankets and pillows. The digital alarm on a bedside table blared causing the owner of the hair to sit up with a gasp. Rikku Saito sighed and turned off the alarm. Stretching her arms up as she yawned before getting up. She pulled her large black shirt down over her boy shorts and walked from her bedroom into the bathroom of her apartment. She leaned against the sink and looked in the mirror. Her hair was sticking up in random places, it was another night of tossing and turning resulting in major bedhead, and red eyes stared back as she sighed again before grabbing a comb. After taming her hair a bit her, now visible, white cat-ears twitched. She grabbed a brush and brushed the rest of her hair short hair, carefully avoiding her ears. She had decided to keep her hair short when she was 15 to simplify things. It was easier to hide short hair in a hat than hair that went down to your middle back.

Rikku walked back into her bedroom and changed her clothes. She pulled on a pair of black jeans and let out a small hiss of pain before looking back at her white tail. She had moved it through a hole she'd made at the top of the jeans and, in the process, had pulled a few hairs out and ruffed some the wrong way. She sighed and smoothed out her tail before it wrapped itself around her waist. It wasn't long enough to fit all the way around but almost. It was a bit un comfortable to keep her tail like that when she had to go out but she'd rather be a little uncomfortable than have people freaking out because she had a freaking tail.

Rikku pulled on a black sleeveless turtleneck and pulled it down to cover her tail. She grabbed a light coat, also black, then black sneakers before going back into the bathroom. She pulled open a drawer before proceeding to put in blue contacts. When she was younger she would lie saying her normal red irises were contacts and that she was cosplaying; people would accept it and just roll their eyes at the idea. Now that she was older telling people they were contacts only freaked them out and made her weird. She was a little less of a freak to have only 'dyed' her hair white.

She grabbed a hat off a small stand and made sure her hair was pinned up before putting it on. She made sure none of her white hair was showing before she pinned the hat to her hair to make sure there was no chance of it falling off. Rikku looked at her appearance and frowned; she hated having to hide like this. She swallowed remembering her dream; it had been 11 years.

* * *

Rikku jogged down the steps of her apartment building and started walking down the sidewalk.

"Miss Saito." Rikku turned to see a man in a suit and sunglasses. "If you would come with me," Rikku looked at the black car next to him. Rikku took a step back. "Don't-" Rikku turned to run away and a dart pierced her neck making her gasp. "-run." The man finished before sighing then lowering the gun as Rikku collapsed.

* * *

Rikku opened her eyes and blinked at the bright light above her. She was lying on a table and was relieved to find she was not restrained in any way.

"Apologies for the tranquilizer." Rikku sat up and turned to see an African America man dressed in black with an eye patch: Director Fury. "You're not an easy one to catch once you start running." Rikku quickly got off the table and moved so it was between them. She noticed the man who had shot her, Agent Phil Coulson, standing nearby. She also noticed she was missing her jacket and hat. "We're not going to harm you."

"I don't know that." Rikku said bending her knees slightly with her hands on the edge of the table. She was ready to bolt if necessary. She didn't know where she was but she'd be able to find her way out.

"Miss Saito, believe me, we have no intention on hurting you." Fury said.

"How did you find me?"

"It's not that hard to track down a white haired, red eyed _cat_ woman."

"I haven't looked like this since I was a teenager." Rikku said. "I've been hiding it for the past eight years. There's no way you'd know about me unless…."

"We're not with the people who did this to you." Fury reassured her.

"I know." Rikku said with a nod. "They would've shot me."

"We _did_ shoot you." Phil said looking confused.

"They wouldn't have used a tranq. Besides they're all dead." Rikku clarified. She looked at Fury and stood normally. "What do you want with me?"

"I'm recruiting the best for an important mission."

"The best includes me?"

"It does."

"You haven't even seen me in action. You don't even know if I can fight." Rikku said with a scoff. "What if I'm just a harmless freak?"

"You have the agility and flexibly of a cat. You're very quick and you have cat like traits including fangs and retractable claws." Rikku's tongue subconsciously ran along her right fang.

"Among other things." Rikku said, her tail flicking behind her while one of her ears twitched.

"You also have training with rather unique duel blades." He said gesturing to a pair of weapons on the table beside him. They were blades, curved slightly at the end, that were connected to a round piece and inside that was the handle. Next to them was a pair of pistols. The weapons were Rikku's, she kept them hidden under her bed.

"You went in my apartment?" She asked as one if her ears twitched in annoyance.

"That is irrelevant."

"To you." Rikku muttered. Fury continued, ignoring her comment.

"I'm putting together a team."

"Just because I have the weapons doesn't mean I know how to use them." Rikku said.

"When you were 18 you single-handedly blew up an entire facility within a few hours. The same facility you ran away from as a child."

"I like the word _escaped_ better." Rikku said with a frown.

"This mission-"

"Not interested." Rikku said. She looked around. "Where's my stuff?"

"You wouldn't have to hide anymore." Fury said ignoring her question. Rikku hesitated. "You'll be accepted here as a valued member of the team."

"What _exactly_ would I be fighting?" Rikku asked. Fury smirked.

* * *

"Some of the others have already arrived." Fury said as he led Rikku down a hall. They entered a room that looked like the main command room.

"So who's part of this team?" Rikku asked.

"I believe three of them are outside." Fury said. "Agent Hill." Agent Hill walked over and nodded.

"Follow me." She said before walking away. Rikku sighed before following.

* * *

Agent Hill led Rikku outside then over to two men and a red headed woman.

"Captain. Dr. Banner. Ms. Romanoff. " Agent Hill said motioning to each one. "This is Rikku Saito. She's another addition to the team." The two men looked at Rikku and both did a double-take at Rikku's ears and Agent Hill walked away with a small smirk while Natasha looked at the cat ears in slight amusement. Rikku rolled her eyes.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Rikku said crossing her arms.

"S-sorry." Steve said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare." Bruce said.

"No I get it." Rikku said. "Not every day you meet a cat girl, huh?" She asked.

"It's not- It's not that." Bruce said.

"No, I think it is." Rikku said with a small smirk.

"I think what Dr. Banner is trying to say is that it's not only the ears." Steve said.

"Yeah I know. White hair, red eyes." Rikku said scratching the back of her head. The two looked confused. It hit Rikku and she took out the blue contacts. "I normally wear these." She said with a small shrug. "I know.. they're pretty freaky…" She went to put the contacts back in.

"No, no, your eyes are fine." Bruce said. Rikku blinked at him. He gave a small cute smile. "Uh- Doctor Bruce Banner." He said holding out his hand. Rikku smiled slightly and shook it. Steve held out his hand.

"Captain Steve Rogers, Ma'am." They shook hands.

"Natasha Romanoff." Natasha said with a nod.

"Nice to meet you." Rikku said looking at the three of them. Natasha cleared her throat.

"You three may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath." She said. Suddenly the Helicarrier started shaking as it prepared to fly.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.

"Really?" Bruce asked. "They wanted _me_ in a submerged pressurized metal container?" The three moved closer to the edge of the Helicarrier and watched in awe as it started to lift into the air. The air from the turbines whipped their hair and jackets around. "No, no. This is much worse." Bruce said with a forced smile.

"Whoa." Rikku said looking over at the giant engines, her tail swinging behind her slightly. Both men noticed it and tilted their heads to look at it. Rikku looked over and noticed them staring. She resisted the urge to sigh. "I have a tail." She said. "Get over it." She said before turning sharply and walking to go back inside. The two men watched her tail as she walked away.

* * *

The four entered the main control room.

"Gentlemen." Fury said to Bruce and Steve. "I see you've met Miss Saito." Steve slipped Fury 10 bucks, referring to his earlier statement about never being surprised again, before he continued walking past him a ways. Fury looked at Bruce. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh...how long am I staying?" Bruce asked.

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"Where are you with that?" Bruce asked. Fury pointed to Phil to explain.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops." Steve looked utterly confused making Rikku have to old in a laugh. She knew the poor guy was out of his time and this one was extremely different. "If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Natasha moved over to a computer screen where Barton's face trace was in progress. She checked the stats.

"That's still not gonna find them in time." Natasha said.

"You have to narrow the field." Bruce said. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury asked.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays." Bruce said taking off his jacket and folding it under his arm. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Fury said.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys." Natasha said.

"Miss Saito, I believe your things are in the lab as well." Fury said. Natasha motioned for Rikku to follow.

* * *

The three entered the lab and Rikku quickly made her way to the table where her weapons and things were. She put her pistols in the back of her pants and attached her blades to her belt. She grabbed her jacket and pulled it on before pulling on her hat over her ears. She didn't bother putting her hair up. Bruce was checking out some lab equipment while Natasha stood nearby. Bruce looked at Rikku.

"Those are yours?" He asked pointing to the blades.

"Mhm." Rikku hummed with a nod. "Claws don't always work." Rikku said holding up her hand, her palm facing her, her nails suddenly extended and were sharpened to points like claws. Bruce blinked at them before chuckling. Rikku smiled before turning to leave the room.

"Ya know," Rikku stopped and looked back at him. "I think you look better without the hat." He gave a small smile. Rikku didn't know what to say so she turned around and walked to the door, taking off her hat before she left the room.

* * *

Phil, Steve and Agent Sitwell were waiting to locate Loki using satellite facial recognition. Phil and Steve stood while Agent Sitwell used the program at his station.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." Phil said to Steve.

"No, no. It's fine." Steve said.

"It's a vintage set." Phil said. "It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but..."

"We got a hit." Agent Sitwell said. "Sixty seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy nine percent."

"Location?" Phil asked.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain, you're up." Fury said. Steve nodded and left the room. "Miss Saito, you can join them if you wish."

"Better than sitting around here doing nothing." Rikku said with a nod.

* * *

Steve and Rikku were in the quinjet that Natasha was piloting. They saw a large group of people kneeling before Loki who was in his Asgardian garb.

"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?" Loki asked as he walked through the crowd. "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made- to be ruled. In the end- you will always kneel." A German old man gets to his feet.

"Not to men like you." The man said.

"There are no men like me." Loki said.

"There are always men like you."

"Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." Loki raised his specter to blasted at the old man. Steve grabbed his shield before he jumped from the quinjet. He blocked the blast with his shield causing it to fly back and knock Loki down.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." Steve said.

"The soldier." Loki rose to his feet. "The man out of time." Loki said.

"I'm not the one who's out of time." Steve said. Suddenly Natasha appeared in front of him in the quinjet. A machine gun unfolded from the underside of the aircraft pointed towards Loki.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha said over the ship's speaker. Loki fired at the jet and it banked hard to avoid the hit. Steve threw his shield at Loki, which bounced off his chest, before catching it and punching Loki in the face. The two fought; Steve was knocked back and he threw his shield at Loki again. Loki knocked the shield to the side and forced Steve down with his scepter.

"Kneel!" Loki shouted.

"Not today!" Steve jumped up and did a spin-kick to Loki's face. The two continued to fight.

* * *

"Why should he have all the fun?" Rikku asked moving to the back of the aircraft.

"Where are you going?" Natasha asked with a frown.

"To have some fun!" Rikku called back like it was obvious before jumping from the aircraft.

* * *

There was a sudden flash of black and white and Loki was tackled to the ground. Not expecting someone to come at him from the side he was unprepared and easily lost his balance. Loki blinked up at the cat-girl on top of him in surprise and utter confusion.

"Hey, you're actually kinda cute." Rikku said tilting her head to one side. Loki blinked again before looking angry. He shoved her off but not before she scratched his face leaving four long cuts on his left cheek. Rikku got up as Loki did. She hissed at him and her pupils became slits, her nails were extended to pointed claws and she bared her, now more extended, fangs. Loki scoffed as the four cuts she'd given him healed.

"Oh, the kitten has claws, does she?" Loki mocked with a chuckle. Rikku glared and ran at him; he moved to the side and went to swing his staff around at her back. Rikku turned and stopped the staff with her blades. She pushed the staff away with a loud screeching of metal, making sparks fly, before talking a swing at Loki's chest with one of the blades. He jumped back just in time. "I guess she does." He said with a slight chuckle. "Where did they find you?" He smirked at her.

* * *

"The guy's all over the place." Natasha said watching Steve and Rikku fight Loki, from the aircraft. Suddenly she heard Tony Stark's voice.

"Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?" Tony Stark asked. The computer screen showed the message: PA SYSTENS OVERRIDE and AC/DC's 'shoot to thrill' began to play. Steve and Rikku looked up confused. Natasha smiled heavily as Tony flew over in his Iron Man suit and blasted Loki to the ground. Tony stood up and pointed his weapons from his suit at Loki. "Make your move, Reindeer Games." Loki's Asgardian garb faded away and he put up his hands in surrender. Tony's weapons went away. "Good move." Natasha landed the quinjet in the background.

"Mr. Stark." Steve said.

"Captain." Tony said. He did a double take at Rikku. "Hello Kitty." He said giving her a once over.

"Hey metal man." Rikku said.

"Iron Man." He corrected with a slight frown that no one saw but heard slightly in his voice. Rikku looked at Loki, stuck out her tongue and pulled one eyelid down before making a 'neh' sound. Loki glared at her and she laughed.

* * *

Tony, Rikku, Steve and Natasha were taking Loki, who was sitting subdued, back to the Helicarrier in the jet. Steve and Tony were standing, Rikku was sitting next to Loki and Steve didn't have his cap on. Tony stood still in his suit bit with his helmet removed.

"Is he saying anything?" Fury asked over the radio.

"Not a word." Natasha said.

"Just get him here; we're low on time."

"I don't like it." Steve said.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony asked.

"I don't remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you were pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?" Tony asked.

"What?" Steve looked confused.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

* * *

After a few minutes Rikku stood to stretch here legs. Her tail swung and hit Loki in the face. He made a noise of surprise before it hit him again. He spit out cat hairs that weren't there and glared at Rikku's back. Her tail hit his face against and he practically growled.

"Would you-" her tail hit his mouth. He spit again. "Stop, you stupid half-breed!" He shouted making Steve and Tony look over.

"Oh sorry." Rikku said looking back at him with a smirk. "It just has a mind of its own." She said before it hit him in the face again. He glared daggers at her and she blew him a kiss. He grumbled to himself and looked away. Thunder and lightning started to shake the jet.

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha asked. Steve looked over at Loki who leaned forward and looked around.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Steve asked.

"I'm not _overly_ fond of what follows." Loki said looking to the sky. Suddenly something landed on the plane. The group looked up. Natasha sped up. Steve ran for something, he grabbed his cowl while Tony grabbed his helmet which attached itself to the suit. Tony pushed a button and opened the ramp of the jet.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked. Thor entered, jumping down on the ramp. Loki looked terrified. He hit Tony away, causing him to fall on Steve. Rikku boldly stepped between Loki and Thor. Loki looked at her like she'd gone mad and Thor simply pushed her out of the way before he grabbed Loki by the neck and jumped out of the plane.

"And now there's that guy." Tony said.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked.

"That guy's a friendly?" Steve asked.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Tony said. He turned and got ready to jump off the jet to chase after Thor.

"Stark we need a plan of attack!" Steve shouted.

"I have a plan. Attack." Tony suddenly jumped out of the jet and chased after Thor, Steve grabbed a parachute to follow.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Natasha said.

"I don't see how I can." Steve said as he pulled it on.

"These guys come from legends, they're basically Gods." Natasha said.

"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Steve strapped on the chute, grabbed his shield, and dived out the plane, head first.

"Stay out of this one." Natasha said at Rikku.

"I'm not stupid." Rikku said with a scoff sitting down and buckling up. "I know who not to fight. That and I can't survive that high of a fall. I may land on my feet but I'm not a super cat." Natasha chuckled slightly.

* * *

**So what did you think? Not much original stuff until the movie ends obviously. **

**Please review. ^_^**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Hey, Rikku's weapons are exactly like Rikku's from Final Fantasy X-2. I liked the name and the weapons so I don't own the weapon idea. And in case you haven't figured it out or looked at the cover Rikku IS Asian, I didn't just give her an Asian name.**

**So, I'm a little sad I've only gotten one review but that's okay… I'm not gunna hold back chapters. Thank you to everyone who has Favorited and Followed and Thank you to ShikiRiian for being that one review (I meant to say thank you in the last chapter, sorry)**

* * *

Loki was brought to the Helicarrier. As he was brought past Bruce's lab he began to smirk. Bruce took off his glasses and watched him go by. Rikku was following behind but stopped to enter the lab. Bruce smile at her in greeting.

"Hey, everyone's gunna watch Fury interrogate," Rikku did finger quotes. "Loki. You comin'?"

"Uh, sure." Bruce said with a nod before walking over. Rikku smiled and the two left.

* * *

Loki was contained in a large, round, glass cell.

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," Fury said. He pressed a button which opened up a huge whole in the middle of Loki's cell. Loki walked to the edge to look down. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury pointed at Loki. "Ant." He then pointed at the button which would drop Loki into the steel trap. "Boot." Loki laughed.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki said.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury said.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki looked into the camera through which Banner and the others were watching the interrogation on the monitor. "A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." Loki said. "How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well, let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something." Fury walked off leaving Loki in his glass cell.

* * *

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asked with a smile, crossing his arms, after the group stopped watching the interrogation.

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve said. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world know." Thor said. "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army… from outer space." Steve said.

"So he's building another portal." Bruce said. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce explained.

"He's a friend." Thor said.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve said.

"He obviously could have gotten away." Rikku said. "We didn't beat him; he surrendered. He has to be planning something."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Bruce said. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Rikku cleared her throat with a frown at him. Bruce's eyes widened and he held up a hand. "Ah- no I- I didn't mean-" Bruce was cut off by Thor.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha pointed out.

"…He's adopted." Thor added.

"I think it's about the mechanics." Bruce said. "Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?" Tony and Coulson came walking in.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony said. He spoke to Phil quietly. "I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive." Phil walked away. Tony addressed everyone else. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." He looked at Thor. "No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." Tony said to him before patting his arm with the back of his hand. Thor gave Tony a look as he walked to the control panels. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Tony said. He looked at a S.H.I.L.D. personel. "Ah, raise the mizzen mast, ship the topsails." He said. "That man is playing Gallaga!" Tony said pointing to a guy who was in fact playing Gallaga. Steve looked at Tony in confusion and looked to where he pointed. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Tony looked at one of the computer monitors in front of him and covered one eye. "How does Fury even see these?" He asked.

"He turns." Agent Hill said.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony said. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." Tony said.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

"He got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce said.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony said.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce said.

"Finally, someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked as Tony and Bruce shook hands.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner." Tony said. "You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster." Tony deadpanned.

"Thanks." Bruce said awkwardly.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury said.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve said.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury said. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand-" Thor said.

"I do!" Steve said a bit too proudly. Tony rolled his eyes. "I understood that reference."

"Cute." Rikku said.

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony asked looking at Bruce.

"This way, sir." Bruce said. The guy who was playing Gallaga started playing again as soon as Tony and Bruce left. Rikku walked over to Steve.

"We need to have a movie night for you." She said. He looked up at her and blinked. "You're like Castiel from _Supernatural_." Steve looked adorably confused. Rikku sighed. "He, and I quote, 'doesn't get that reference.'" Steve blinked again. "Or Zack Addy from _Bones_ who 'doesn't understand that reference'." Rikku added. Steve blinked at her once again. "Oh boy." She said and looked away from him, she noticed Thor looking equally confused. "That's it; once this whole thing is over I'm teaching you two modern references." Rikku said pointing at them. Natasha scoffed.

"Good luck with that."

"You're welcome to help." Rikku said.

"No thank you, you're on your own." Natasha said. Rikku sighed.

* * *

Tony and Bruce were in the lab. Loki's scepter was on a stand on the table, Bruce was scanning it.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract." Bruce said. "But it's gonna take weeks to process."

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Tony said pressing some buttons on a large device. Bruce chuckled.

"All I packed was a tooth brush."

"You know, you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R and D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem." Bruce said sheepishly.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment." Tony said walking around him. "No tension. No surprises." Suddenly he poked Banner with an electrical shock device.

"Ow!" Bruce grunted. Tony looked at Bruce closely. Bruce held a hand to his side and looked at Tony with a what-is-wrong-with-you look.

"Hey!" Steve said as he and Rikku walked in.

"Nothing?" Tony asked.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked.

"Jury's out." Tony said before looking back at Bruce. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Tony asked. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Leave him alone, would you?" Rikku said crossing her arms. Bruce glanced up at Rikku while she glared at Tony. Rikku saw Bruce looking at her and gave him a warm smile.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked.

"Funny things are." Tony said pointing to Steve briefly with the electric shock device.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve said. He looked at Bruce. "No offense, Doc."

"No, it.. it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce said.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony said walking over to a table and putting the electric stick down.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve said.

"You think I'm not?" Tony asked picking up a bag of blueberries. "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? Why did he suddenly recruit Kitty here when she's been in New York for the past 11 years?" He asked nodding to Rikku. "What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony threw a small handful of blueberries into his mouth then pointed to Bruce. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here, and..."

"Doctor?" Steve asked. Bruce hesitated and took off his glasses.

"'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it." Steve said pointing at Tony.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce pointed to Tony who then pointed the bag of blueberries at him. Bruce took some. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" Steve asked. "That big ugly..." Tony looked at him. "building in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Bruce said.

"That's just the prototype." Tony said. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce asked. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files." Tony said.

"I'm sorry, did you say...?" Steve asked.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." Tony said showing Steve a small device. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide." He pointed the bag of blueberries in his hand towards Steve. "Blueberry?" Tony asked.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve asked.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome." Tony said.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up." Steve said. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style." Tony said putting more blueberries into his mouth. He looked at Rikku and pointed the bag at her, raising his eyebrows slightly as a silent inquiry. Rikku reached in and took a few.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked.

"Of the people in this room, which one is: a) wearing a spangly outfit, and b) not of use?" Tony asked.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Bruce asked.

"Just find the cube." Looking angry, Steve walked out of the lab. Rikku watched him go then looked back at Tony as he spoke.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." Tony said.

"The guy's not wrong about Loki; he does have the jump on us." Bruce said.

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does." Tony said.

"Yeah. And I'll read all about it." Bruce said.

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us." Tony said.

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed; like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart." Tony tapped blue light on his chest plate. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how."

"It's different."

"Hey, I've read all about your accident." Tony swiped the screen Bruce was looking at making everything go to one side so the two could look at each other. "That much gamma exposure should have killed you." Tony said.

"So you're saying that the Hulk… the Other Guy, saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?" Bruce asked.

"I guess we'll find out." Tony said.

"You may not enjoy that." Bruce said.

"You just might." Tony said. Tony looked over at Rikku who was looking at a nearby computer. Tony walked up behind Rikku and eyed the tail that hung from her backside. He picked it up, unintentionally, pulling it slightly. Rikku yelped before whirling around, grabbing her tail from him and hissing at him. Her pupils became slits, the red of her eyes spreading into the white slightly and her nails and fangs extended. Tony jumped back with wide eyes while Bruce's eyebrows went up. "Whoa! Down Kitty!" Tony said as she bared her fangs.

"Don't. Touch. The tail." Rikku growled.

"Duly noted." Tony said with a nod. "Didn't think it was real."

"Why else would it be there?" She snapped.

"Calm down." Tony said putting up his hands. He glanced back at Bruce. "Looks like you're not the only one who has an anger problem." Rikku glared at Tony who looked back at her, backing away as she seemed to start growling, before she leaving the room. "Remind me not to piss her off."

* * *

Rikku let out a breath as she walked down the hall. Her eyes, teeth and nails slowly reverted to normal. She ran a hand through her hair, avoiding her ears. She closed her eyes briefly and turned a corner. She bumped into someone and fell back with a gasp. Steve quickly caught her arm with a hand on her back and pulled her upright.

"I'm sorry about that, ma'am." He said.

"It's fine, I wasn't looking where I was going. And you don't have to call me ma'am."

"Apologies, Miss Saito." Rikku chuckled.

"Steve, please just call me Rikku."

"Okay... Rikku." Steve said with a small smile. Rikku smiled back. "So.. if you don't mind me asking, how did you get... Uh.. like this?" Steve asked a bit awkwardly gesturing to her ears.

"I was the result of a mutation experiment when I was a baby. I escaped when I was 12 and burned the place down when I was 18." Rikku said simply. "I wasn't born like this."

"I'm sorry." He said.

"Believe it or not I like being like this. It's who I am." Rikku said. "It's been easy to hide it from the world but that doesn't mean I want to."

"You won't ever have to hide among us." Steve said with a smile.

"Thanks." Rikku said. "So… where were you going?" Rikku asked. Steve hesitated.

"Uh…" He cleared his throat. "I was looking into what Mr. Stark said."

"Mind if I join you?"

"Be my guest." He said. The two started walking down the hall.

* * *

Steve pulled at a door, broke the metal holding it close before pulling it open. Rikku whistled making Steve look back at her. She waved her hand as if she was hot.

"Careful there, might make me swoon." She teased. Steve chuckled slightly.

"Well if you did I would make sure to catch you." Steve said with a small shy smile. Rikku giggled making Steve's smile widen.

"You're too much." She laughed. "You're strong, a solider, handsome and the shy flirting." Rikku said putting a hand on her forehead. "Get ready to catch me." Steve laughed but was still slightly surprised when Rikku let herself fall.

"Whoa." He said with a chuckle. "I didn't think you'd actually swoon." He said. Rikku smiled up at him and stood normally.

"I was gunna catch myself before you had to." Steve's face went pink and he let her go. "Come on Cap." Rikku said slipping by him and into the room. They walked in and saw a large number of containers. Steve looked around before jumping up to the catwalk. He looked down and was about to extend a hand to help Rikku up when he saw she was already climbing up. He blinked at her as she landed next to him. "I'm a good climber." She said with a smile. Steve chuckled.

"Right. Almost forgot about that." He said before they started walking along the catwalk.

"Hey Steve." Rikku jumped up and started tightrope walking along the railing.

"Hmm?" He hummed, not looking back at her.

"I'm a cat… on a catwalk." She said with a small giggle. He chuckled and looked back at her. Steve's eyes widened and he raised his arms, ready to catch her should she fall.

"Be careful." He said as she looked down at him.

"I have good balance." She said. "Don't worry. Besides, I know you'll catch me." She said with a wink.

"Just be careful." He said with a worried look. Rikku patted his head.

"Don't worry." Steve sighed.

The two walked down the stairs of the cat walk and walked up to some of the containers before opening them.

"Metal man was right." Rikku said. "Fury's definitely not telling us everything." Steve looked at her before looking back down at the weapons in the containers.

* * *

"As soon as Loki took the doctor we moved Jane Foster." Phil told Thor. "We've got an excellent observatory in Traunsee. She was asked to consult there, very suddenly, yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe."

"Thank you." Thor said. "It's no accident Loki taking Erik Selvig. I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Erik is a good man."

"He talks about you a lot. You changed his life. You changed everything around here."

"They were better as they were." Thor said. "We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we...we come here battling like Bildge snipe."

"Like what?" Phil asked.

"Bildge snipe." Thor said. "You know; huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?"

"I don't think so."

"They are repulsive, and they trample everything in their path." Thor explained. Thor looked out the window. "When I first came to earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price. And now again. In my youth I courted war."

"War hasn't started yet." Fury said. "You think you can make Loki tell us what the Tesseract is?"

"I do not know." Thor said. "Loki's mind is far afield, it's not just power he craves, it's vengeance, upon me. There's no pain that would price his need from him."

"A lot of guys think that, until the pain stops." Fury said.

"What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?"

"Loki is a prisoner."

"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?"

* * *

Natasha visited Loki in his cell.

"There's not many people that can sneak up on me." Loki said.

"But you figured I'd come." Natasha said.

"After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton."

"I'd say I've expanded his mind."

"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt."  
"Tell me."

"Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., I uh...well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out."

"Ah, no. But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?" "Regime's fall everyday. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or I was."

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you?" Loki asked. "Can you wipe out that much red? Drakoff's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital file? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away." Loki said. "I won't barter Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull!" Natasha turned away from Loki. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Natasha sounded like she was weeping.

"You're a monster."

"Oh, no. You brought the monster." Suddenly Natasha turned to face Loki again but with no evidence of tears.

"So, Banner? That's your play?"

"What?" Natasha talked into her earpiece.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Set the door locked." Natasha turned to Loki again. "Thank you, for your cooperation." She turned and walked off.

* * *

**Thank you for reading ^_^ I'll try to finish the next chapter tonight then post it tomorrow or Saturday after I go to a Panic! Concert. ^_^**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Thank you Applejax XD, Stargazer1364, and ShikiRiian for reviewing. ^_^**

* * *

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury asked coming into the lab after finding out that Tony hacked into S. .L.D.'s systems.

"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you." Tony said.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury said.

"We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce said.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What _is_ Phase 2?" Tony asked. Suddenly Steve appeared with one of the weapons he and Rikku found on the ship. He dropped it onto a table with a loud clang as Rikku walked in behind him with her arms crossed.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. used the cube to make weapons." Steve said. He looked at Tony. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract." Fury said. "This does not mean that we're..."

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony said before he moved the computer screen towards Fury which showed plans of the weapon. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve said. Thor and Natasha walked into the lab.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha asked.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." Bruce said.

"Loki's manipulating you." Natasha said.

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha said.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce said. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." Bruce said pointing his glasses at the screen.

"Because of him." Fury said pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor asked with his arms crossed.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge mass that leveled a small town." Fury said. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out gunned."

"Didn't he end up saving everyone though?" Rikku asked. Thor pointed at Rikku then Fury with a nod.

"I did." Thor said. "My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat." Fury said. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"You can't control everything out there!" Rikku said at the same time Steve spoke.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve asked.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor said. "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for A HIGHER FORM OF WAR."

"A higher form?!" Steve asked.

"If you'd have left it where you found it none of this would be happening." Rikku said.

"You forced our hand!" Fury said to Thor. "We had to come up with some-"

"Nuclear deterrent!" Tony said. "'Cause that always calms everything right down." Everyone became hostile and began cutting each other off.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury asked.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Steve started.

"Wait-Wait! Hold on! How is this nowabout me?" Tony asked.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve asked.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor said. Everyone began arguing over each other. Fury turned to Thor.

"_Excuse me_, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" He asked.

"You treat your champions with such intrust." Thor said.

"You're not my champion!" Fury said.

"You furious? I'm furious." Tony said to Steve.

"Are you boys really that naive?" Natasha asked. "S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats."

"And _Captain America_ is on the threat poll?" Bruce asked.

"We all are!" Natasha said to Bruce.

"All of us? Rikku's harmless," Bruce said gesturing to her. "how are _all _of us a threat?"

"That's not your concern doctor." Fury said.

"You're on that list?" Tony asked Steve. "Are you above or below angry bees?"

"I swear to god, Stark, one more crack…" Steve said.

"You're a threat. VERBAL THREAT! I FEEL THREATENED!" Tony said.

"Show some respect!" Steve said.

"Respect what?!" Tony asked. As they argued over one another the scepter glowed strongly.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor said.

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're- we're a time bomb." Bruce said.

"You need to step away." Fury said.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked.

"You damn well know why!" Steve said. "Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony said.

"Would you two stop it?" Rikku asked stepping towards the two.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve asked Tony.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony listed.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony said.

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, special about you came out of a bottle."

"There's nothing wrong with that!" Rikku snapped at Tony making him lean back slightly. "You're defenseless without your suit." Rikku said.

"Thanks for restating the already stated, Kitten." Tony said with a small smirk.

"Even with your suit Steve would still pound you into next week." Rikku snarled, her pupils becoming slits and the red bleeding into the white.

"Highly unlikely." Tony said to her. He looked at Steve. "Got your pussy fighting your battles for you now?" Rikku's eyes were almost completely red and her claws dug into the flesh of her tightly closed fists. Steve smirked.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds." Steve said. Thor laughed.

"You people are so petty, and tiny." He said.

"Sorry we're not as great as you oh mighty cape-wearing hammer guy." Rikku said. Thor scoffed. "According to Eye-Patch though all of this is your fault so don't say we're the petty ones."

"You were on my side a moment ago." Thor said. "I was never a threat to your world."

"But you brought the threat to the attention of people like him." Rikku pointed to Fury.

"People like me?" He asked.

"He's the one who decided to act." Thor said. "I didn't intentionally bring a threat to your world."

"But you came here then it followed!"

"I didn't want to come here!"

"Oh that's right, you were banished here because you didn't listen to daddy. So, still, it's your fault."

"Watch your tongue." Thor said with a glare, pointing at her. "Do not disrespect my father."

"Would you call this a cat fight?" Tony asked Steve who glared at him.

"Then don't insult us, you're no better than us." Rikku said. By now her eyes were almost completely red and blood dripped from her clenched fists.

"I beg to differ." Thor said crossing his arms.

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce said.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-" Fury started.

"Where? You rented my room!" Bruce said cynically.

"Bruce…" Rikku said softly reaching her hand out to him slightly. He looked at her.

"The cell was just-" Fury started but Bruce's head snapped back to him as he cut him off.

"In case you needed to kill me. But you _can't, I know, I tried_!" Everyone looked at Bruce in shock. "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the Other Guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff?" He asked looking at her. "You wanna know how I stay calm?" Everyone was watching Bruce, Fury and Natasha reached for their guns.

"Doctor Banner, put down the scepter." Steve said. Banner looked down, surprised, to see the spear was in his hand. The monitor made a noise, signaling the Tesseract had been located. Banner put the scepter back on the table and walked over to the screen on the other side of the room.

"Got it!" Fury said.

"Sorry, kids." Bruce said. "You don't get to see my party trick after all."

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I can get there faster." Tony said.

"Look all of us-" Steve started.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard; no human is a match for it." Thor said. Tony turned to leave but Steve held him back.

"You're not going alone!" Steve said. Tony smacked his hand.

"You gonna stop me?" He asked.

"Put on the suit, let's find out!"

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

"Knock it off, both of you!" Rikku snapped stepping between the two and putting her hands up towards each of them.

"Oh my god." Bruce said looking up from the computer.

"What is it?" Rikku asked about to walk over. Everyone in the lab suddenly went flying in different directions as one of the engines blew up. Fury and Thor fell to the ground behind a table. Tony and Steve were blown to the entry way while Bruce, Rikku and Natasha flew out the lab and into the lower equipment room. Tony and Steve sat up.

"Put on the suit." Steve said.

"Yeah." Steve helped Tony up and they ran out of the lab.

* * *

People were running around, yelling and grabbing guns while the monitors were beeping wildly. S.H.I.E.L.D. Techs were panicking. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were gearing up and running to their stations.

"All hands engaged." The intercom said. The place was hectic.

* * *

Fury sat up, groaning.

"Hill!" He said into his earpiece. Hill was standing her command area. She was looking at a screen.

"Number Three engine is down." She said.

"We've been hit." A female tech said. Hill ran over to a bridge tech's station.

"Did we get a run in? Talk to me."

"We got a fire in Engine Three." He said. "The line looks mostly in tact but it's impossible to get out there to make repairs while we're in the air."

"We lose one more engine we won't be." Hill said. She turned on her earpiece. "Somebody's gotta get outside and patch that engine."

"Stark, you copy that?" Fury asked.

"I'm on it." Tony said.

"Coulson, initiate defensive lock down in the contingent center. Then get to the armory." Fury said. "Romanoff!"

* * *

Natasha's leg was trapped under a very large pipe. She tired pulling herself painfully free. She groaned in pain and gave up. Bruce was in the corner; he was fine but was making very wired movements.

"Okay." Natasha said into her earpiece. She looked at Rikku who sat up holding her head. There was some blood running down the side of her face but other than that she looked fine; her eyes had reverted to normal from suddenly being thrown in the explosion. She looked at Natasha and gave a weak thumbs up. The two looked over to Bruce who was breathing heavy, having landed hard. He was gripping the grated flooring to maintain control, but his eyes were green, his face intense. "We're okay, right?" Natasha asked herself quietly. Rikku moved over to Natasha and started to try and pull the pipe up so Natasha could get out. Bruce struggled to suppress the rage, but his face was growing, changing slowly. Natasha tried to pull herself painfully free. "Doctor? Bruce, you gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me."

"Bruce." Rikku said softly. Two maintenance guys ran in.

"You hurt?" One asked. Natasha waved them away. They quickly left realizing the danger.

"We're gonna be okay. Right? I swear on my_ life_ I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never ever – "

"Your life?" Bruce growled. His voice had the change in it - the bitter amusement was morphing to a growled threat. Bruce began to transform into the Hulk, shirt tearing, he threw himself away from Natasha and Rikku, who looked terrified, then he turned to look at them. He locked eyes with Rikku before transforming - just as the lights went out.

"Bruce." Rikku said. The Hulk unsteadily got to his feet and roared as he punched a metal container making steam shoot from it. Natasha got up, pulling Rikku with her. The Hulk looked at them. Natasha grabbed onto Rikku's arm and pulled her with her as she ran up the catwalk stairs as the Hulk chased after them.

"Stay close." Natasha said to Rikku as she let go of her arm. Natasha swung over the catwalk and rolled under a turbine, Rikku doing the same, as the Hulk tore down the stairs. The two women jumped through small places as the Hulk grabbed after them, roaring loudly.

* * *

Natasha and Rikku snuck under an engine. They heard heavy footsteps. Natasha pulled out her gun holding it steady. The two moved out from the pipes. Suddenly, the Hulk jumped at them, roaring. Natasha fired her gun at a pipe over his head and gas shot out. She and Rikku ran along a narrow passage, the Hulk crashing through behind them. He came up on them fast. He caught up to them just as Natasha got off the passage and because he was swinging his arms as he ran he ended up backhanding Rikku into the wall. She sat up painfully, putting her back to the wall, pressing herself against it as best she could. The Hulk stepped towards her. Rikku looked up at him with wide eyes. He roared loudly at Natasha, when she made a move to get to Rikku, making Rikku flinch. The Hulk looked down at Rikku who was trying to calm her breathing. He huffed a big, sharp, breath through his nose.

"B-Bruce." Rikku whimpered. The blood from her head was clearly visible in her white hair, dripping onto the ground and her clothes. The Hulk began to reach towards her slowly when he was suddenly tackled through a wall by Thor. Natasha rushed over to Rikku to see that she was alright. Rikku got up, shakily.

"I'm fine." She panted. She swallowed before she started backing away. "I'm going to help Tony and Steve." She said.

"I don't think you should be going anywhere."

"I'm of no help down here." Rikku said before jogging away.

* * *

Thor and the Hulk rolled into a docking area with planes and personnel who ran from the room. The two circled one another, then the Hulk struck, throwing wild punches as Thor ducked and weaved. Hulk brought down a fist and Thor held it above him, on his knees.

"We're not your enemies, Banner! Try to think!" Thor shouted. The Hulk punched Thor across the room and through a few containers. He slid across the floor on one knee and one leg out. He wiped a little blood from his nose. The Hulk roared and Thor looked up, grinning, and raised his hand. Mjolnir came flying through the docking area and Thor caught it just as the Hulk charged through and hit him on the jaw - sending him into a plane.

Hulk got up and ripped the wing off the plane, flinging it at Thor, who ducked, causing the wing to hit a jeep. Thor threw Mjolnir. The Hulk caught the hammer but was pulled backwards. He tried to lift the hammer but couldn't Thor picked it up and wrapped his arms around the Hulk's neck. Hulk tried swinging Thor off.

* * *

Rikku ran down a hall and took out her blades. She turned the corner and saw a guy shooting at Steve. She came up behind the guy, jumped onto his back and slit his throat with her blade before pushing off his back and flipping and landing in a crouched position as the guy fell from the ship. A second guy turned around and Rikku slashed at him with one of her blades as he went to fire. The guy held a hand to his chest for a brief second before Rikku jump kicked him in the face making him fall as well. Steve climbed up from the cord he was hanging on and pulled a red level. He flashed a smile at Rikku.

"Thanks." He said.

"No problem." Rikku said standing up straight from her crouching position. She put her blades away in the side holsters on her hips. Steve looked away for a second to look for Tony. He looked back at Rikku and his eyes widened.

"Rikku!" He shouted. Rikku turned around just as a guy swung at her. She backed up, a few feet from the edge, and the guy raised his gun. Rikku kicked the gun from his hand as Steve jumped down. Steve punched the guy who stumbled towards Rikku. Rikku took another step back, thinking there was a place to stand, and her foot slipped. She gasped loudly. Steve turned to see her falling with wide eyes. "Rikku!" The guy started fighting Steve again before Steve could try to catch her. She couldn't help but scream.

* * *

Hulk and Thor crashed through the floor of the Wishbone lab. Thor lay on the ground, he looked up, and Hulk grabbed him by the throat. A S.H.I.E.L.D. jet flew to where Hulk and Thor were fighting, seemingly evenly matched.

"Target acquired. Target engaged." The pilot said. He fired his guns toward Hulk. The barrage of bullets bounced off of Hulk. He roared, running at the window. Hulk crashed through it, leaping at the jet. "Target angry. Target angry!"Hulk landed on the nose of the jet and tore at the metal as it swerved in the air. The Hulk suddenly froze as if hearing something and looked back at the helicarrier to see a black figure falling. The Hulk pushed off the jet to jump over to the figure. His large arms encompassed the figure before they fell from the sky.

* * *

**So, what did you think? Not much new added I know. One more chapter of movie events until original stuff. ^_^**

**Please review.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! ^_^**

**Thank you cartec677, , and Erudessa-gabrielle. And also thank you guest reviewer your review made me laugh and want to post this sooner so I finished tonight as quickly as I could and as best I could so I could post it now. ^_^**

**Hope everyone likes this chapter ^_^ (It's really long in comparison to the other ones)**

** Btw i added the deleted scene to the end of the 'Bruce waking up' scene**

* * *

Bruce groaned as he woke up. He blinked a few times and looked down suddenly and saw Rikku in his arms.

"Rikku?" He asked hoarsely. "Oh g-" he sat up. "Rikku!" He saw the blood in her hair and on her clothes and put a hand on her neck to check her pulse. "Oh thank god." He breathed when he felt her pulse pumping beneath his fingers. "Rikku wake up." He shook her slightly before leaning down and putting his lips by her ear. "Rikku.. please.." Rikku's ear twitched. "Rik-" she made a small noise and her eyes opened slowly.

"Bruce...?" Rikku said blinking.

"You're alright." He said stroking the side of her face. "You're okay."

"What happened?" She asked. "The last thing I remember is…falling."

"You fell from the helicarrier." Bruce said nodding.

"And you caught me?"

"…The Other Guy caught you."

"Thanks." She said. "Are you.." she looked at his chest and her eyes trailed down to his stomach before looking at his face quickly. "naked?" She squeaked. Rikku's face went red and Bruce hesitated.

"It kinda happens when the Other Guy takes over" He said, his face a shade darker. He swallowed. Suddenly someone cleared their throat. The two looked up to see a security guard who had walked over some of the ruble.

"You fell out of the sky." The guard said.

"Did I hurt anybody?" Bruce asked.

"There's nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though."

"Lucky."

"Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell."

"You saw?"

"The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude. Here..." He threw Bruce a pair of trousers. Bruce caught them and Rikku got up off of him. Her face went red as she accidentally caught a glimpse of him. "I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella."

"Thank you." Bruce put on the trousers.

"Are you two aliens?"

"What?"

"From outer space, aliens?"

"No."

"Even with the ears and tail?" He asked pointing to Rikku. Rikku shook her head.

"Still no." Bruce said with a slight chuckle and a small smile at Rikku.

"Well then, you two've got conditions, son." He said. He gestured to Rikku. "You were protecting her when you fell. She was unconscious but you wouldn't let go of her." Rikku and Bruce looked at each other.

"Guess the Other Guy likes you too." Bruce said.

"Well I like you guys too, tell him I say thank you." Rikku said with a chuckle. Bruce smiled slightly and blinked in surprise when Rikku pecked his cheek. Bruce open and closed his mouth, trying to find words. "Cute." Rikku said with a smile. Bruce smiled back. The guy tossed Bruce a button up shirt and some shoes. The guy got off the ruble and Bruce put on the shoes before pulling on and buttoning up the shirt.

"So which one is it?" The man asked. Bruce looked confused.

"Sorry?"

"Are you a big guy that gets all little or a little guy that sometimes uh blows up large?"

"Ya know… I'm not even sure." Bruce said making Rikku frown.

"Ya got somewhere ta go?"

"Stark Tower, I… no." Bruce shook his head. The guy gave him a look. "Yes." Bruce nodded.

"I'd expect some confusion of the mind," The guy said walking over. "Since your body is kinda all over the place." The man motioned for the two to walk with him. "But, it has to be one or the other." Bruce looked at him.

"I know where I could do the most good but it's where I could do the most harm." Bruce started to tuck his shirt in.

"Well that's no different from anybody else."

* * *

Rikku and Bruce walked along a short road, following the security guard to a small building. The security guard went into a small garage after telling the two to wait outside.

"I'm sorry." Bruce said suddenly.

"For what?" Rikku asked confused.

"The Other Guy, back on the ship..."

"It's alright." Rikku said. Bruce frowned and looked away. "Bruce..." He looked at her. "It's okay. Really." She put a hand on his cheek. He smiled slightly and reached up to pet her head as she dropped her hand. He avoided her head wound. She closed her eyes as he scratched behind her ears. He smiled when he heard her purring. He pulled his hand away from her.

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay." Rikku said. Bruce shook his head. They heard a door open and moved away from each other. They hadn't realized they were only about a foot away from each other. The security guard brought over a small motor bike.

"This is all I got out here." He said. "Might have to stop for gas somewhere though. Don't have any here and the tank is about half full."

"Thank you." Bruce said. He got on the bike and Rikku got on behind him. He swallowed as she wrapped her arms around him and her hands gripped the front of his shirt lightly. He started the bike and took off.

"We're going to New York right?" Rikku asked in Bruce's ear. He hesitated for a moment then nodded.

* * *

The two were driving down a dirt road when they saw a gas station. Bruce pulled over next to one of the pumps.

"Better safe than sorry." He said. "About a quarter left." The two got off the bike and Bruce looked at Rikku with a sheepish look. "You got any money on you?" He asked. "My wallet is uh…" Rikku nodded and took out a small, thin, wallet from inside her suit. The suit was similar to Natasha's. She took out a few dollars before tossing the wallet to Bruce.

"I'm gunna get a drink, want anything?"

"Uh, water." Bruce said with a nod. Rikku nodded before going into the small convenience store. She grabbed two bottles of water and a small bag of chips. She didn't even care that her ears and tail were visible. The man at the counter looked at her strangely but didn't ask questions.

Rikku left the store as three guys got out of a car next to the second pump, one started to fill their car while the other two leaned on the back. Bruce had just finished filling the tank and walked past Rikku to go inside to pay. Rikku put one bottle of water under her arm and cracked open the other before taking a long drink. She heard a long whistle and looked over at the two guys near the car. They were smirking at her. They looked to be in their early to mid-twenties.

"What's with the get up?" One asked.

"It's not even near Halloween, Kitty." The other said. The third guy, the one pumping the gas, glanced at her but didn't say anything. The two on the back of the car walked over.

"Either you're going to some freak convention or you're into the kinky shit." The second one asked with a smirk. Rikku rolled her eyes and ignored them.

"So which is it?" The first guy asked. He reached up to touch her ears but she moved away. "Aw don't be shy, kitten." Rikku looked over to the store to see Bruce paying at the counter. Rikku let out a yelp when one of the guys grabbed her tail.

"Hey!" She pulled it back.

"Come with us and we'll let you keep the tail and ears on." The second guy said.

"The boots too." The first guy said looking down at her black boots.

"Leave me alone, creeps." Rikku said glaring at them.

"Aw, come on kitty." The first one said slapping her ass. She jumped and moved away from them again.

"Go away." She snapped.

"Hey!" Rikku turned to see Bruce coming back over. "Get away from her."

"Stay outta this old man." The second one said.

"Come on." The first guy said sliding a hand up Rikku's arm. She jerked away from his touch.

"Get your hands off her." Bruce said with a glare.

"What are you gunna do about it!?" The second guy asked. Bruce gritted his teeth together.

"Bruce." Rikku said reaching to put a hand on his arm. "Calm down." She said softly.

"What's the matter _Brucie_?" The first guy asked.

"All talk and no bite?" The second taunted.

"It's all _bark_ and no bite." The first guy muttered to him.

"Whatever man."

"Bruce." Rikku said putting her other hand on his other arm. His eyes were fading to green and his breath was starting to pick up. "Bruc-"

"Rikku- get away." He said swallowing hard.

"No, Bruce calm down." She put her hands on his face. He locked eyes with her but his eyes were completely green. He suddenly convulsed and bent over with a grunt.

"The fuck's wrong with him?" The second guy asked with a frown.

"Bruce!" He convulsed again and was on his hands and knees on the ground. His shirt and pants were starting to rip as his skin was turning green and growing.

"What the fuck man?!" The first guy asked as the two backed away.

"Bruce!" Rikku kneeled next to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "You've got to calm down!" It didn't take long for the transformation to complete and the Hulk roared. Rikku stood quickly as he did and backed away. He growled and back handed her, about 30 feet, when he swung his arms back to let out a loud roar. She skidded across the dirt before she stopped. She sat up and saw the three guys had gotten back into their car and were trying to get away. The Hulk easily caught up to their car before swinging it around and throwing it almost out of sight. As Rikku got up she saw the store clerk come out with a shotgun. "No!" Rikku started running back but the clerk shot at the Hulk's back. The Hulk turned around and roared. The clerk suddenly looked terrified and ran back into the store. The Hulk was about to smash into the building when Rikku got closer. "Bruce stop!" He stopped suddenly and turned to see her. Rikku froze as he growled and took a step towards her. "Hey big guy…. Come on." She said. "You remember me right?" She asked. He was glaring at her. "You- You saved me." Rikku said taking a step towards him. He tensed and she held up her empty hands. "I fell from the helicarrier and you saved me." Rikku's heart was beating in her throat but she took another step towards him. "You know me, right, you remember me?" He seemed to relax slightly but was still breathing heavily and was clenching and unclenching his fists. "Why else would you save me?" She took another step towards him. She smiled slightly. "Thank you for that by the way." He watched her warily and allowed her to come up to him. He stared down at her while she looked up. She swallowed as he reached his hand out at her and touched her cheek with one of his fingers. Rikku winced slightly making him pull his hand back as if he didn't want to hurt her further. "The others need us." She said. "Tony, Natasha, Steve," He glared slightly at the last name. "Thor." He looked angry and annoyed with that name. "We have to help them." She lowered her hands. "We need to help defeat Loki." He growled at the name. "Please?" She reached out to him with one hand and he looked at it before snapping his gaze back to her. She smiled slightly and gently touched his hand. He looked down at her hand that was tiny in comparison to his own. "Will you help?" He looked at her for a moment before huffing with a nod. She smiled up at him. "I'm going to need Bruce to come back though." He glared and growled making her want to take a step back but she didn't, she just kept smiling. "I don't know how to drive the motorcycle." She said with a chuckle. The Hulk looked over at the bike then back at her before nodding reluctantly. "Thank you." She said before removing her hand from his. He looked down and stared at his hand. "I'm going to get some clothes for Bruce since… well you know." She said before going into the store, leaving him to revert back.

"You're crazy, talking to that monster." The clerk said, his voice quivering in fear.

"He's not a monster." Rikku said with a glare. "I need some clothes for hi-"

"Just take them and get him out of here." Rikku sighed and grabbed some clothes before heading back outside. Bruce was sitting on the ground looking dazed. He looked around in confusion; everything looked the same, only the other car was missing. He knew he'd Hulked out but nothing was smashed. Rikku walked over and he made sure his stretched pants were covering him.

"Here." She held out the clothes then turned around so he could get dressed.

"What happened?"

"You got angry." She said before turning around after hearing the zipper of his pants.

"Then?" He took notice of the dirt and the bruise, which was slowly forming, on her face and frowned. "I hurt you…"

"Well you threw a car then I managed to calm you down." Rikku said.

"You- you … calmed him down?" Bruce asked, shocked.

"Yeah." Rikku said with a nod. "I convinced him that we needed to get to the others to help them. I reminded him that he saved me." Bruce still looked shocked but nodded and the two walked to the bike as he buttoned up the shirt.

"You calmed the Other Guy down." He said getting on the bike. Rikku got on and put her arms around him.

"Mhm." She hummed. "Come on, we should get going." Bruce nodded and started the bike before taking off.

* * *

New York was chaos. The Chitauri had already come through the portal shooting from Stark Tower and destroyed more than half of the city. Buildings were on fire or collapsing. Cars were overturned in the streets. People were cowering in fear on every corner, on every street. Police were scrambling around but had no idea what to do.

* * *

Thor arrived on ground to join Steve, Natasha and Barton. Tony was in his suit, flying around New York trying to take out a large live Chitauri ship like creature.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor said. Tony spoke to them through his Iron Man suit.

"Thor is right; we gotta deal with these guys." Tony said.

"How do we do this? " Natasha asked.

"As a team." Steve said.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor said.

"Yeah, get in line." Clint Barton said as he was fixing an arrow head.

"Save it." Steve said. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us…" Just then Bruce arrived on a motorbike with Rikku on the back holding onto him. They got off and walked over.

"So, this all seems horrible." Bruce said.

"I've seen worse." Natasha said.

"Sorry." Bruce said with a sheepish smile.

"No, we could use a little worse." Natasha said.

"Stark, we got them." Steve said.

"Banner and Kitty?"

"Just like you said."

"Tell Banner to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." They watched as Stark drew the giant ship towards them.

"I-I don't see how that's a party." Natasha said. They watched as the ship came closer. Bruce started walking towards it.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said. Bruce looked back at him. "now might be a good time for you to get angry." Steve said.

"That's my secret, Captain." Bruce said walking towards the ship. "I'm always angry." He transformed into the Hulk and smashed the giant worm like ship stopping it in its tracks. It started to flip over and Tony fired at it causing it to explode into piece. Rikku grinned.

"Alright, go big guy!" She laughed jumping up and down. The Hulk turned to look at her with a huge grin. Tony lowered himself to the ground, Hulk roared, Clint drew an arrow, Thor readied his hammer, Natasha reloaded her gun and Rikku took out her blades while Steve steadied his shield. They watched as more giant ships came through portal.

"Guys." Natasha said.

"Call it, Captain." Tony said.

"Alright, listen up." Steve said. "Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint asked Tony.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Tony said before he lifted Barton up to the building.

"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up." Thor spun his hammer before flying away. Steve turned to Natasha and Rikku. "The three of us will stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk.." Hulk looked at Steve. "smash." Hulk grinned before jumping up to a building and pulling a few Chitauri off before jumping to another building then another before jumping and hitting a bunch of Chitauri hover crafts. Thor drew lightening and fired it at the portal opening.

* * *

The ground team fought the Chitauri. Natasha using her guns, Steve his shield and Rikku her blades and occasionally her pistols. Rikku ran up the chest of one Chitauri, kicking it in the face as she did so, before jumping up and bringing her blades down through the next of a Chitauri behind the first. She yanked her blades out of the dead Chitauri before whirling around to slash at the other ones.

"Yo Captain!" Rikku called. "I'm gunna see if I can help evacuate some of the civilians; you two good here?" She asked stabbing and Chitauri.

"Go!" Steve called back as he threw his shield before punching a Chitauri. Rikku took out another before running down the street. She climbed over a few cars in her way and killed Chitauri that got in her way. She helped a man out of his car; it had landed on its side and ruble from a building trapped him inside. Rikku told him to get back, so he climbed in the back seat, and she shot the windshield glass out before helping him out. She helped a few more people out of similar situations before she found a little boy, looking to only be around five or six, cowering behind an overturned car. She crouched down in front of him.

"Hey." He looked up at her.

"Who are you?" He asked through tears.

"One of the good guys." Rikku said. "Come on, let's get you somewhere safer." An explosion went off close by and the two ducked. "Come on." She picked up the boy before running to some cops. As she approached one looked at her and did a double take. "Yeah, cat, I know." She said putting the boy down. "Get this kid somewhere safe and send out a small group to look for more people on the streets."

"You're with that other guy. In the uniform."

"Captain America, yeah." Rikku said with a nod. "Look, people might be trapped in cars or hiding behind them. Don't just go past cars, make sure you check inside them." The officer nodded. The little boy was staring up at Rikku. She flashed him a fanged smile before running off.

* * *

"Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." Natasha said as she and Steve fought the Chitauri.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." Steve said.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns."

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

"I got a ride. I could use a lift though."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun." Steve gave her boost with his shield and Natasha jumped up and commandeered one of the hover boards to fly to the top of Stark Tower.

* * *

Rikku jogged down the street, killing Chitauri when needed, and looked for people. There was a loud explosion above her and she looked up to see one of the large ships had hit into a building. Debris started falling and Rikku's eyes widened and she gasped before she started running to get out of the way. There was a large flash of green and something grabbed her before jumping out of the way of the debris. Rikku looked up at the Hulk in surprise. He put her down gently and grinned at her.

"Hey big guy." Rikku breathed, a small smile coming to her face.

"Rikku safe." He said. Rikku nodded.

"Yeah, thank you." Rikku said with a bigger smile. "Saved my life… again." He continued to grin at her. "Hey, wanna give me a lift to the Tower?" Hulk picked her up and placed her on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around him as best she could.

"Hold tight." He said. Rikku held on tighter before he jumped.

* * *

Hulk jumped up to the Tower and with a roar plowed into Loki sending them all through the glass into the Stark Tower penthouse. Rikku got off him quickly as he hit his fists on the floor. Loki stood.

"Enough!" Loki shouted making Hulk stop for a minute. "You are all of you beneath me! I am God, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by-" Hulk grabbed Loki by the legs and smashed him against the floor repeatedly and finally threw him aside to the ground.

"Puny God." Hulk said as he walked away. Loki whimpered in pain in the floor. Rikku giggled and ran over to Loki before looking down at him. His eyes looked at her and she grimaced looking down at him.

"Ouch." She said before running after the Hulk. He looked down at her as they walked outside and she smiled up at him making him smirk. His smirk faded when he looked at her face though. The bruise was darker and she had more cuts and dirt on her face. Her hair was still slightly stained red from her blood and it had crusted on her cheek. He slowly reached out a giant hand and lightly touched her cheek with one of his fingers. Rikku put her hand on his finger and smiled at him. "I'm fine." She said. He looked down ashamed. "Hey." She took a step towards him and looked up at him. "I'm okay. Now let's go kick some ass." She said with a smirk. He smirked back before he crouched and looked at her. She hopped onto his back and held onto his neck. She laughed as he jumped from the building.

* * *

He landed on top of another building and Rikku flipped off his back before they both started fighting Chitauri. They took out a group of Chitauri; Hulk smashing and Rikku slashing and shooting. Suddenly a group of Chitauri on hover crafts were gathered above them and started shooting at Hulk's back. Rikku ducked and the Hulk quickly grabbed her and shielded her. She held her hands over her head and looked up at him as he hunched over and looked at her as the bullets bounced off his back. She squeezed her eyes shut as he held her closer.

* * *

On top of Stark Tower, Natasha had Loki's scepter and was about to shut the portal when she called to the others.

"I can close it! Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!" She shouted.

"Do it!" Steve said.

"No, wait!" Tony said.

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute." Tony said flying towards the missile. "And I know just where to put it." Tony said. He grabbed the missile and headed towards the portal.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Steve said.

* * *

Steve and Thor looked up from where they were on the ground and Hulk raised his head from some ruble and Rikku looked up from beneath him as Tony flew towards Stark Tower, up the side then past Natasha and Dr. Selvig and up along the beam of light from the Tesseract before going through the portal opening.

Tony used the last of the power in his suit and flew straight through the portal and sent the nuke towards the massive Chitauri mother ship, blowing it up as his suit died and he slowly fell backwards.

Everyone stared up at the portal opening. They heard a muffled explosion and saw the light from the blast but no Stark. The Chitauri all deactivated and collapsed. The giant ships fell from the sky and landed on, or crash landed into, buildings.

"Close it." Steve said after a long moment with no Stark. Natasha forced Loki's scepter in and shut down the portal. The light from the Tesseract shot up and the portal began to close. Just as it was about to close Tony fell through the gap and plummeted to the earth.

"Sun of a gun!" Steve said.

"He's not slowing down." Thor pointed out. He began to swing his hammer, ready to go catch Tony.

* * *

Rikku and Hulk got up and Rikku jumped onto the Hulk's back.

"Hulk!" Rikku shouted pointing to Tony. Just before Tony hit the ground, the Hulk snagged him out of the air and grabbed onto a building, slid down a floor or two before jumping off and landing on his back on a car. Rikku jumped off last minute and Steve caught her as he and Thor ran over to Hulk and Tony.

"Whoa!" Steve exclaimed as he caught Rikku and the two of them fell over with her on top.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"I got you." He said "You're safe." He smiled at her. Suddenly the Hulk came over and, gently, picked up Rikku and placed her standing upright on the ground. The three met Thor where Tony was laying and crouched around him. Thor took off Tony's helmet and stood. "Is he breathing?" Tony wasn't moving and didn't look to be breathing. Steve leaned over him to see if he could hear or feel a breath. He moved his hand from Tony's chest plate and saw the arc reactor wasn't lit up before sitting back with a sigh. Rikku stared at Tony's face and felt tears welling up. Hulk stood up before he yelled in fury, and the noise startled Tony awake. The arc reactor started glowing again and Hulk roared a bit more, hitting his own chest once.

"What the hell?" Tony looked around dazed. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?" Tony said. He looked at Rikku. "Unless it was you." She shook her head with a light chuckle and choked back a happy sob. Steve sat back, breathing heavily for a second.

"We won." Steve said. Tony let his head fall with a sigh.

"Alright. Yay!" Tony weakly raised his arm an inch or two before letting it fall with a clang. "Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma?" Steve smiled. "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it." Tony said.

"We're not finished yet." Thor said. Steve looked up at Stark tower. Tony was silent for a second.

"And then shawarma after." Tony said. Rikku giggled. Steve smiled at her. She smiled back.

"I'm glad you're okay." He said. "After you fell I thought…"

"I'm alive." She said with a smirk. "Cat's always land on their feet, remember?" She said with a smile. He chuckled and the two simply looked at each other for a moment. Suddenly the Hulk reached over with a large arm and pulled Rikku, gently, closer to him, making her boots slide across the ground sideways, and away from Steve, all while glaring at Steve. Rikku blinked up at him in confusion while Steve chuckled sheepishly. Steve stood and helped Tony up. "You're suit still work?" Rikku asked him.

"Oh yeah…uh…" He was quite for a minute. "Jarvis?... I take that back, no…" He said to Rikku.

"Don't worry; the big guy can give us both a lift, right?" Rikku asked looking up at Hulk. He nodded with a grin.

"What about the Captain?" Tony asked.

"It's not like there isn't room." Rikku looked up at Hulk. "You can carry all three of us right? I'll ride on your back while you carry them." Hulk frowned, glaring at Steve with a low growl.

"I get the feeling he doesn't like me." Steve said quietly.

"Not to worry." Thor said. "I can… give you a lift." He said before swinging his hammer and grabbing the back of Steve's uniform before they flew off. Tony took off the rest of his helmet and threw it to the side as Rikku frowned up at Hulk.

"That was rude." She said. Hulk frowned at her. "I don't know why you don't like him but you don't have to be mean." She said as he held out his hand, not looking at her. She jumped onto his hand then onto his back. He huffed as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Big guy's just jealous." Tony said walking over. Hulk glared at him slightly in annoyance before picking him up and jumping up to Stark Tower.

* * *

In the Stark Tower's penthouse, Loki painfully sat up on the two-step-stairs and turned to find himself surrounded by The Avengers. Clint had an arrow drawn at him and Natasha was holding the scepter.

"If it's all the same to you," he said sitting up a bit. "I… I'll have that drink now." Hulk huffed. Thor approached Loki and proceeded to cuff his hands together.

"Where did he have those all this time?" Tony whispered to Steve who resisted the urge to sigh.

"So, shawarma?" Rikku asked. Tony grinned.

"Shawarma." He said with a nod. Everyone else either groaned or sighed. Rikku walked up to the Hulk with her hands held behind her back and smiled up at him. He looked down at her with a small grin.

"I know you like being out but," Hulk's smile faded. "We can't exactly go out to eat with you like this." Rikku said with a sad smile. Hulk huffed. "Don't worry; next time… we'll hang out or something." She smiled sheepishly with a light chuckle. He was still frowning at her. "Aw come on, don't look at me like that." She said dropping her hands to her sides. She frowned herself lowered her head slightly with a sigh. Hulk reached over and lifted her head with a finger under her chin. He smiled slightly making her smile. He patted her on the head gently.

"I'll get him something to wear." Tony said as the building took off his suit before going to the elevator. Hulk slowly sat down with a light huff. Rikku walked in between his legs and gave him a kiss on the forehead making him grin.

* * *

The seven sat around a square table in the 'shawarma joint' Tony found. Miraculously they were still open and the place wasn't that wrecked. Everyone ordered then pulled tow tables together and sat down to eat. Steve was at one end the going clockwise it went Thor, Tony, Rikku, Bruce, Clint, Natasha then back to Steve. Clint had his legs up on the side of Natasha's chair and his thing of food in his lap. Steve rested his chin on his fist and Tony was leaning back in his seat. Everyone was quietly eating.

"Aren't you going to feed _me_?" Everyone looked over at Loki, who was handcuffed twice on the ground in the corner; once with his hands together and again to a metal thing connected to the wall. "It's a little unfair." He added with a small smirk. The group glared at him and Rikku got up. Bruce looked up at her as she walked over to Thor. She leaned down and whispered something in his ear, cupping her hand. Thor nodded and reached into his pocket before handing her something. The rest of the group as well as Loki watched her walk around behind Steve and over to Loki. She crouched in front of him. "Well Kitten?" He purred tilting his head slightly with a smirk. Suddenly Rikku had put a muzzle on him. He blinked and looked down at it with a frown before glaring at her. She smiled.

"Aw, you still look cute." She said before patting his head. She stood up as he muttered something behind the muzzle. She turned around and her tail hit him in the face. He closed his eyes at the hit. She looked back as he opened his eyes to glare up at her. "Whoops, sorry." She said with a grin before she walked back to her seat.

* * *

On a group of screens multiple videos played. They showed interviews, celebrations, and people getting tattoos of Steve's shield or men getting their facial hair like Tony's.

"Despite the devastation, what has been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers has been to many a cause not only for comfort but for celebration." A news reporter said.

"Really great knowing they're out there, ya know." A man said. "Someone's watching over us." A woman pushed through the crowd.

"I love you Thor." She exclaimed.

"And then all these guys were all pew pew and then the air goes whoosh! And this green guy walks up and goes RAWR!" A kid said, doing large hand motions.

"I don't exactly feel safe with those things out there." A man said.

"It just seems like there's a lot their not telling us." The woman next to him said.

"Superheroes?" An old man on a TV report asked. "In New York? Give me a break!"

"These so called heroes have to be held responsible for the destruction done to the city." Senator Boynton said on another screen. "This was their fight. Where are they now?"

* * *

The Avengers met up to say goodbye and to give the Tesseract to Thor. Loki stood nearby in cuffs with the muzzle on. Rikku snickered at him making him look at her annoyed. Dr. Erik Selvig held open a device while Bruce carefully, using tongs, put the Tesseract into it. Thor put a hand on Dr. Selvig's shoulder. Loki looked up at Clint and Natasha as she whispered something to him which made him smile. Thor walked up to Loki and held out the device. After a moment Loki took the other handle and Thor nodded to everyone before he twisted his handle to activate the device. It glowed blue then made the two Asgarians blue before it shot them up and they were teleported home.

"So, Stark Tower is open to all of you." Tony said. "Dr. Banner here already agreed to move in." Tony said patting Bruce on the back. "Anyone else?" Bruce glanced at Rikku who in turn looked at him.

"You up for pets?" Rikku asked Tony.

"Sure, a house cat won't be so bad if it's you." He said with a smirk. "Anyone else?"

"Don't you have to fix the tower first?" Steve asked. "It is kinda… smashed."

"Sorry about that." Bruce said with a small smile making Rikku giggle. He glanced at her with his shy smile.

"Maybe later." Natasha said and Clint nodded once.

"I'll see when I can stop by." Steve said.

"Alright." Tony said.

* * *

Natasha went to her car, her S.H.I.E.D. agent car, and got Bruce's luggage bag out of the back seat before handing it to him with a smile. Clint got into the front of the car. Steve walked up to Tony and they shook hands.

"You better show up at some point." Tony said. "Kitten's gunna miss you." Steve chuckled and looked over at Rikku who was saying goodbye to Natasha.

"I'll bring her by once we get her stuff." Steve said looking back at Tony.

"You're going to have to make a lot of trips." Tony said with a slight frown. Steve chuckled and shook his head.

"She's bringing a small bag and will go back to get the rest of her things from her apartment when needed, is what she told me." Tony nodded.

"Right, well, see you around Captain." Steve nodded and walked to his motorcycle. Steve started up it up as Tony and Bruce got into Tony's car. Steve looked back and saw Natasha get into the car before Rikku jogged over. She hopped on the back and wrapped her arms around his waist. He swallowed and smiled back at her. "See you at the Tower." Tony called to her before he and Bruce took off while Clint and Natasha did the same.

* * *

On the screens two more videos played.

"The White Fang saved me!" The little boy Rikku had found said, being interviewed.

"The- The White Fang?" The reporter asked.

"I don't know her name but she had claws and fangs!" The boy said excitedly jumping up and down. "And fuzzy ears and a tail! She's awesome!"

* * *

"What that this is all somehow their fault?" A waitress asked. "Captain America saved my life." She let out a breath. "Wherever he is and wherever any of them are I would just… I would wanna say 'thank you'."

* * *

Fury was meeting with the world security council; they were on four large screens above the console where the other clips had been playing.

"Where are The Avengers?" One asked.

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts." Fury said. "I'd say they'd earned a leave of absence."

"And the Tesseract?" The only woman of the four asked.

"The Tesseract is where it belongs, out of our reach." Fury said.

"That's not your call." The last one asked.

"I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the God that did." Fury said.

"So you let him take it and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crime."

"Oh, I think he will be."

"I don't think you understand what you've started, letting The Avengers loose on this world." The second one said. "They're dangerous."

"They surely are, and the whole world knows it. Every world knows it." Fury said.

"Was that the point in all this? A statement." The first asked.

"A promise." Fury said.

* * *

Tony and Pepper Pots were looking at plans for rebuilding Stark Tower. The letters for "STARK TOWER" had been blown away, and all that remained was a giant A.

* * *

**Story is NOT over, movie events are over. I have a few original ideas for a few chapters. (Hopefully I'll get more ideas over time.)**

**If anyone has any ideas or requests please feel free to message me I always give credit where it's due ^_^.**

**Explaining the whole Loki being in the after credit scene: 1) (before scene in movie)Thor and Loki left meaning this scene actually had to take place before they left, also Tony said shawarma after and that was after. 2) Steve, Natasha, and Clint are all still suited up. If the scene happened after Loki was returned they wouldn't be suited up. 3) Everything is still a mess. 4) I noticed Clint looking off to the left (not at anyone) in the actual scene. So with all that in mind I decided Loki would've been there too but with the muzzle on and out of sight.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Check bottom for my Stark Tower layout. (Might make a diagram too and put it on my blog too.)  
**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed ^_^**

**Nymph . Naji** : **You made a ship name! XD Awesome! Hukku. When I first read it I read it as Hulkku like Hulk with a Japanese accent "Hulk-Ku". XD Also i put spaces between the . in your username. maybe that's why it didn't show up before the site might have thought it was a web site.  
**

* * *

A small mess of white hair could be seen poking out from the black blankets of a large bed. An alarm on the bedside table went off. A pale arm slipped out of the blankets and felt around before it hit the snooze button.

"Miss Saito." Jarvis said over the speaker in the room. "That is the fifth time you've hit the snooze button this morning. Are you feeling alright?" Rikku rolled over with a sigh.

"Yeah, I'm fine Jarvis." Rikku said getting up. She yawned and stretched before pulling her shirt down and walking into the large bathroom. She took a quick shower before she fixed her hair which had grown a bit longer, now reaching a bit past her shoulders. She went back into her room and got dressed. She pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of jean shorts before buttoning the back. She'd fixed all of her pants and shorts so there was a button above the hole for her tail so it was less painful. She walked back into the bathroom and smiled at her reflection. Her ears twitched happily and she left the room.

She had a whole floor to herself; it was designed like an apartment and was much bigger than her last one. Her bedroom was much larger than her old one and she had a bigger bed. She'd brought her things over from her apartment over the past two weeks before she finished paying her rent and gave up her old one. Attached to the bedroom was the large master bathroom; Large tub and shower, wide vanity and stainless steel sink. There was another smaller bathroom in the apartment without a bath or shower for 'guests' as Tony put it.

Leaving the bedroom Rikku entered the living area; white walls, black carpet, a long white couch and a black coffee table. There was a fairly large TV up on a black entertainment center with surround-sound, DVD player and an Xbox connected to it. There was a small black table with four black chairs around it in its own section of the room; a dining area.

Like most apartments the kitchen was right off from the living area. It had the same black and white theme with expensive appliances. It was medium size and had an isle with a few bar stools as well as a small compartment under the isle where Rikku could keep a safe-box.

Outside the apartment was a small hallway to the elevator. Rikku walked down the hallway, hit the up arrow and waited. The number at the top stopped at 76 and the doors opened. She took the elevator up to the 90th floor. She stepped off and walked down a hall and into the kitchen; Pepper was sitting at the counter drinking some coffee and reading a magazine. Even though each 'apartment' floor was equipped with pretty much everything a house would have there was still a floor where everyone could eat and hang out together as well as work. A sort of universal apartment without the beds and more computers.

"Good morning Rikku." Pepper said with a smile.

"Morning." Rikku said returning the smile and walking to the large fridge. She got out some milk before going into the cabinet to get a box of cereal. Tony walked into the room from his personal elevator.

"Hey Kitten." He said before refilling his cup of coffee. "Oh hey, a few old friends are coming over later today."

"Really?" Rikku raised an eyebrow as she poured her cereal into a bowl. "Who?"

"You'll see." Tony said with a smirk. Rikku shrugged and sat down to start eating her cereal. A few minutes later Rikku washed her bowl and spoon before putting everything away.

"Has Bruce come up for breakfast yet?" Rikku asked.

"Nope." Tony said walking to a computer. Rikku rolled her eyes and went into the fridge. "What are you doing?"

"Making him some breakfast." Rikku said getting out ingredients.

"Again? That's cute." Tony said with a chuckle. "You two should just hook up already." Pepper gave Tony a look while Rikku rolled her eyes and ignored him.

* * *

Bruce was typing on a computer when Rikku knocked on the doorway to the lab. He looked up and smiled when he saw Rikku with a plate of food and a mug of coffee.

"Hey." Rikku said coming in as Bruce took off his glasses.

"Hey." Bruce said. "You don't have to keep doing this for me." He said as Rikku put the plate and mug on the table near him.

"I know, but otherwise you wouldn't eat." Bruce chuckled.

"Well, thank you, again." He said. He picked up the mug and looked in it.

"Don't worry, I didn't forget, it's decaf."

"No that's not it." He said looking at her. He smiled shyly. "You're just… always so nice to me."

"Of course." Rikku said putting a hand on his shoulder. "Cause I care about you." She said. She held back the blush that wanted to surface when he blinked at her in surprise. Rikku boldly leaned down and kissed his cheek before walking to the door. "Oh, Tony said he was having some friend over later, want me to come down to get you or…"

"Uh, Y-yeah sure." Bruce said nodding.

"Kay. See ya later." Rikku said before leaving.

* * *

Rikku returned to the 90th floor and walked over to her computer 'station.' Tony had given everyone their own little area, even if they hadn't come to the tower yet. Rikku's place was between Steve and Natasha's. She looked at the two stations that had yet to be used and sighed slightly before logging on.

"Hey, no mindless Tumblr surfing today." Tony said pointing over at her from his spot standing behind a large table.

"I have nothing better to do." Rikku said with a sigh. "Seriously, think of something to do and I'll do it." Tony remained silent. "Exactly." Rikku muttered.

"Just don't stay on it all day this time."

"Alright, I'll just go play Skyrim in an hour." Rikku said with a shrug.

"Not what I meant." Tony sighed. Rikku grinned while Tony looked at Pepper with a silent 'help me'. She shook her head at him. Tony sighed again. "Ya know you may be 23 but sometimes it feels like you're the teenage daughter." Tony groaned.

"Making Pepper the mom and you the daddy?" Tony grimaced.

"I'm gunna stop you right there." Tony said holding up a hand. Rikku laughed.

* * *

After about half an hour Rikku logged off and got up.

"If you need me I'll be bothering Bruce." She said walking to the elevator.

"Only she can bother the rage monster." Tony muttered shaking his head. Rikku stopped walking and looked at Tony with a glare. "rage… guy, my bad." He corrected. Rikku continued to the elevator. She hated when people used the M word when talking about Bruce.

* * *

"Oh Bruce." Rikku said in sing song as she walked into the lab. Bruce put his mug down as he looked over at her. She looked at his still almost full plate of food and frowned. "Did you not like it or-"

"O-oh no, I'm just not hungry." He explained. "It's good. Your cooking always is." He added making Rikku smile.

"Thanks." She said with a small blush. She brushed her hair back over a non-existent ear before moving the hair back.

"Why do you do that?" Bruce asked. Rikku blinked.

"Do what?"

"You always move your hair back to cover the side of your head."

"Well… I don't have human ears… so… it looks weird." Rikku said looking away. "There's also the scaring." She swallowed. Bruce nodded.

"…I think it looks fine." He said after a minute. Rikku looked at him and he gave her his signature shy smile making her smile too.

"Thanks." Rikku said walking over. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. "You're sweet." A slight pink tint came to his cheeks.

"Miss Saito, Dr. Banner, Tony has asked me to inform you his guest have arrived early." Jarvis said.

"Thanks Jay, we'll be right up." Rikku said. She looked back at Bruce. "You comin?" He nodded and stood up.

* * *

The two took the elevator to the 90th floor and heard people other than Tony and Pepper talking. Rikku frowned and walking into the living area. Tony smirked when he saw her.

"They got here a little early." Tony said. Clint and Natasha looked at Rikku and smiled. Steve, who was sitting on the couch and facing away from Rikku, turned around to see her. He smiled.

"Hey." He said with a small wave. Rikku grinned and jumped over the couch to hug him.

"Oh my god!" She said hugging him around his neck. He laughed and hugged her back.

"Didn't know you missed me that much." He said with a chuckle. He glanced back and saw Bruce awkwardly walk over. "Dr. Banner." He greeted.

"What about us?" Natasha asked Rikku, crossing her arms. Rikku smiled and suddenly was hugging Natasha, making Clint raise an eyebrow at how fast she got there. She pulled him into the hug too making him awkwardly pat her on the back. Rikku pulled back and grinned at the two.

"We're awaiting two more." Tony said. Rikku tilted her head in confusion.

"Thor?" Tony nodded. "And?"

"His girlfriend." Tony said. Rikku blinked.

"Didn't know he had one." She said. Steve smiled at her.

"So how've you been?" He asked and Rikku sat down next to him, her knees to her chest, and her feet on the couch.

"Great." She said. "Living here has been awesome. What've you been up to?"

"Uh, learning." He said with a chuckle. "Catching up on the last 70 years."

"Hey, we never had that movie night I said we would!" Rikku said jumping in her seat and making Steve jump at her outburst. "You should stay the night."

"Slow down their kitten." Tony said. "Don't jump him yet, he just got here." Rikku rolled her eyes at Tony. "They are staying the night. Thor won't get here until tomorrow anyway and he'll have to pick up Jane. Besides they each have their own floor, remember."

"So we have all day and night." Rikku said. Tony chuckled as she pulled Steve up with both her hands pulling one of his. "Come on." Steve looked to Tony then the two agents as Rikku pulled him to the elevator. She pressed the button and looked back at Bruce who was awkwardly standing a few feet from the couch. "You wanna come, Bruce?" She asked tilting her head with a smile.

"Uh- no, no you two have fun." He said with a smile. Rikku hesitated but nodded.

"Okay, you get lonely you know where to find us." Rikku said as the doors opened.

* * *

**So I looked it up and Stark Tower is 93 stories (BTW that IS realistic cause the Empire state building is 103 stories.) So to make things a bit simpler this is how I made it**

**Floors 93-90 are Avenger's HQ type floors while 93 is the penthouse still and 90 is like kitchen, living room, dining room, etc. **

**Floors 89-79 are all R&D (Research and Development) In the movie Stark says top ten floors are R&D but in another thing I read it said top three floors were for the Avenger's after something happened in the comics. So I moved the 10 floors down.**

**Floors 78- 70 are living quarters. **

**78: Tony & Pepper**

**77: Thor (& Jane)**

**76: Rikku Saito**

**75: Natasha Romanoff**

**74: Clint Barton**

**73: Steve Rogers **

**72: Bruce Banner**

**71 and 70: are actually like one huge floor for Bruce if he should have to Hulk out. (I'll explain more in the story but there's a thing in his apartment where he can jump down to the floor below and be able to safely Hulk out. Ya know reinforced steel, lots of space, etc.)**

**69-1 I have no idea. I'll probably add random thing like a library floor, a pool, garage etc.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Hey I made a blog where I post about my fanfictions. Ya know News, pictures, diagrams, etc. I put a diagram for my Stark Tower up there. Link is on my profile (and if it doesn't show up for some reason just PM me and I'll fix it)**

**Short chapter sorry. Please forgive me Q-Q**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed.**

* * *

After a few movies, where Rikku had to explain most of the references, the two were crashed out on the couch. Bruce took the elevator down to her floor and was about to knock on the door when Jarvis spoke.

"The door is unlocked, Dr. Banner." Jarvis said. Bruce nodded.

"Uh Thanks…" Bruce said before going into the apartment. He saw _Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest_ on the TV and Steve and Rikku's heads. Steve's head was leaning back a bit while Rikku's was on Steve's shoulder. Bruce walked around the couch and saw the two were asleep; Rikku had a blanket over her and she was hugging one of Steve's arms. Bruce swallowed and frowned. "Uh…" He awkwardly walked over and gently shook her shoulder. Rikku slowly opened her eyes and Bruce smiled sheepishly. "Sorry to wake you but," Rikku sat up slightly and Steve started to wake up. "Tony wanted Steve to see his room before midnight." Rikku looked up at her clock; it was almost 11:30.

"Oh- I didn't realize how late it was." Rikku said sitting up causing Steve to lift his head and look around a bit confused. He noticed how close Rikku was to him, and the fact that Rikku was still holding his arm, and blushed slightly. Bruce nodded awkwardly. He looked back at the TV and noticed the DVDs on the coffee table.

"Uh, many movies did you watch?" Bruce asked picking up _O Brother Where Art Thou_ and _Where The Wild Things Are_.

"Uhh, I lost count." Rikku said with a chuckle, letting go of Steve's arm. Bruce chuckled.

"Well, uh the Captain's room is two floors below yours." Bruce said. "The default key code to the door is 1234 until you change it." Steve frowned. Rikku looked at him and noticed his confused expression.

"Don't worry, I'll help you." Rikku said.

"Thank you." Steve said with a small smile. She got up and Bruce blinked as she threw the blanket over the back of the couch.

"No wonder you were cold." Bruce said with a slightly chuckle. Rikku looked down at her shorts and tank-top.

"Well it was hot at first." Rikku said with a shrug. "Steve didn't mind." Rikku teased looking down at the now blushing Captain.

"Uhh…" He cleared his throat.

"I'm messing with you." Rikku giggled before ruffing up his hair a bit as she walked past him. Steve nodded with a chuckle. Rikku walked over to the entertainment center and bent over to open the cabinet to turn off the DVD player and get the movie out. "Hey Bruce," Rikku said standing and turning off the TV before turning to face the two. Steve stood. "After I show the Captain his new place you wanna join us for one last movie and some takeout?"

"Uh, sure." Bruce said with a nod. "What did you have in mind?"

"Pizza sound okay?" Rikku asked looking at the two. They looked at each other and nodded.

"Works for me." Steve said. "They deliver this late?" Rikku smiled.

"This is New York, sweetie." She said. Steve chuckled slightly and turned his head to hide a slightly embarrassed blush. "Kay, Bruce you can pick out the movie." Rikku said as she walked over to a slim phone before walking into the kitchen and getting a pizza menu from a drawer. "What kind do you guys want?"

"Whatever you'd like." Steve said.

"Well how about I just get a plain then?" The two nodded. Rikku nodded back before dialing the number. The two men looked at each other.

"So, Dr. Banner, how've you been?" Steve asked with a friendly smile.

"Good, good… Uh and you?" Bruce asked. Steve nodded.

"I've been well." There was an awkward silence between the two and they glanced over to the kitchen to see Rikku on the phone, her tail flicking slightly.

"Um…" Steve looked at Bruce, raising his eyebrows slightly in question. Bruce closed his mouth not knowing what to say. Luckily Rikku walked over and put the phone back in the holster.

"Okay." She said with a smile. "I'll have to go down to get the pizza in ten minutes so we'll have to do the tour fast."

"Ten minutes?" Steve asked with a confused frown.

"Considering how long it takes to get down in the elevator…" Rikku said. Steve nodded, understanding. "Bruce you can get comfortable, we shouldn't be long." Rikku said taking Steve's hand and leading him to the door. Both Steve and Bruce both looked down at Steve's hand as Rikku pulled him out the door. Bruce cleared his throat and looked around slightly.

* * *

Rikku rocked back and forth on her feet in the elevator, humming her own elevator music. Steve glanced at her and smiled slightly seeing her big smile. She looked at him and saw his smile.

"Whacha smiling at?" She asked tilting her head.

"You." He said with a slight chuckle before clearing his throat.

"Why?" She asked smiling more.

"You look so happy."

"That's cause I missed you." Steve's cheeks went pink. "And Natasha and Clint too." She added. "You missed me too, right?" Rikku asked looking up at Steve. He chuckled and nodded.

"Of course I missed you." He said petting her head. She closed her eyes and Steve smirked when she started purring.

"No fair." She said pushing against his hand.

"Do you meow?" Steve asked. Rikku simply looked up at him and with a smile before letting out the cutest 'mew'. Steve blinked a few times and his cheeks went pink. Rikku giggled as the doors opened.

"Come on." They walked up to the door and Rikku pressed 1-2-3-4 on the number panel. "I'll set up your code later unless you want to keep it a 4. It's not like anyone's going to break into any of the apartments anyway." Rikku said with a shrug. "They'd have to make it past the first 70 or so floors."

"I think leaving it as it is would be easier." Steve said with a nod.

"Okay." Rikku said opening the door. She chuckled. "I guess Tony took the liberty of designing your place." Steve stepped in behind her and saw the room had a very patriotic theme. The walls were the same blue as his suit, the carpets were white and some of the furniture was red while others were white. "It actually looks kinda cool, don't cha think?" Rikku asked looking back at him.

"Well I can't say I'm surpised. I mean yours is black and white."

"Mhm. I bet Bruce's is green." Rikku said.

"You don't know?" Steve asked. Rikku looked at him.

"I've never been in his apartment. " Rikku said shaking her head. Steve nodded. "Well, you can look around; it's pretty much the same as my apartment only you'll have to add your personal things. I'm gunna go get the pizza, meet you back on my floor?" Steve nodded.

"Sure." He said. Rikku nodded with a smile before leaving.

* * *

Rikku walked into her apartment.

"Pizza!" She called. Steve and Bruce, who were sitting in an awkward silence on the couch, turned to look at her. "Hope you didn't have too much fun while I was gone."

"Of course not." Steve said with a smile. "No fun without you." Rikku chuckled and tried to hide a blush with her hair. Bruce had to swallow before clearing his throat. It was no secret the Other Guy wasn't a big fan of the Captain for certain reasons and boy did he let Bruce know it.

"You're sweet." Rikku said with a small smile. She brought the box of pizza over and put it on the coffee table. "What do you guys want for drinks?" She asked walking to the kitchen.

"Uh water is fine." Steve said.

"Uh, same." Bruce said.

"Really?" Rikku asked with a frown before shrugging and going into the fridge. She came over to the table with two glasses of water and a bottle.

"Beer?" Bruce asked. "Really?" He looked from the bottle to Rikku as she sat down between the two men, putting down three paper plates.

"Hey I'm 23." She said with a shrug before opening the bottle against the coffee table. Bruce chuckled as she took a sip. "I'm only having one." She patted his head. "Don't worry." She grabbed the remote from the coffee table and finally took notice of what movie was loaded. "_Princess Bride_?" She asked looking at Bruce.

"Uh, well, he's never seen it and-" Bruce said motioning to Steve.

"He's only seen about five or so movies." Rikku said. "I'm not making fun of you or anything. It's one of my favorite movies." Bruce nodded.

"Are you going say it's nice when a guy gets in touch with his sensitive side?" Bruce asked with a small smile making Rikku giggle.

"I wasn't going to say that." She laughed. "But if you wanna think of it like that." She smiled at him.

"Just hit play." He said rolling his eyes playfully. Rikku grinned and hit play before grabbing a piece of pizza, putting it on a plate and leaning back on the couch. The two men got themselves a piece as the movie started and Rikku pulled the blanket back over herself.

"Tell me if you guys get cold, blanket's big enough." They nodded and leaned back into the couch.

* * *

The movie credits rolled, the pizza was gone as well as the drinks; Rikku was curled up on the couch, her back slightly facing Bruce and her head resting on Steve's shoulder. The blanket now covered the three of them and Rikku's bare feet and tail brushed against Bruce's leg. Steve glanced down at Rikku and saw she was asleep. He smiled slightly before he reached over and tapped Bruce on the shoulder making him look over. Steve pointed at Rikku and Bruce saw that she was asleep. Bruce smiled slightly, ignoring the fact that Rikku was hugging Steve's arm again, and moved the blanket that was covering himself so that it covered her more.

"I could try to pick her up but I don't want to risk waking her." Steve whispered.

"Either that or you sleep here." Bruce said forcing a slight smile. Steve shifted slightly and Rikku held onto his arm tighter. "I'll uh… clean up while you figure this out." Bruce said before standing up, picking up the pizza box, putting the plates into it and grabbing the glasses and Rikku's beer bottle. He walked into the kitchen and put the glasses in the sink, the bottle next to the sink and the box on the counter. He looked back and saw Steve brushing Rikku's hair out of her face, looking down at her with a smile and a light blush on his face. Bruce swallowed and cleared his throat. Steve looked over and Bruce motioned to the door. "I'm gunna- I'll see you tomorrow." He said before awkwardly leaving. Bruce walked down the hallway to the elevator and looked down at his clenched fists. He pressed the down arrow and heard the door open behind him. He looked back and saw Steve gently closing the door. He walked over and motioned behind him.

"Uh, I managed to get up but didn't want to wake her." Bruce nodded. The two stood there awkwardly waiting for the elevator to come then again while they waited for it to reach Steve's floor. Steve stepped off and the second the doors closed Bruce sighed loudly. He was the floor below Steve's so it didn't take long for him to get to bed. Even so he couldn't sleep; the Other Guy wasn't exactly happy.

* * *

**Thought it would be funny to have one of the movies that Steve and Rikku watched be ****_Where the Wild things_**** are cause Mark Ruffalo was in it as The Boyfriend (didn't have a name I guess, I forget, haven't watched the movie in a while). I have other cute little ideas for one or two chapters and an idea for a few more chapters. **

**If anyone has any requests/ideas, I give credit, just PM me. (I would prefer you not review the ideas in cause then it wouldn't be a surprise to everyone else. **

**Also if you've seen ****_Princess Bride_**** and liked it: You are awesome and I like you.**

**Please Review! ^_^**


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**WOW Thank you everyone who reviewed! I suddenly have 27 review on this, lol.**

**Sorry this took so long.**

**Shika93: You are awesome for reviewing on each chapter. Thank you so very much. Lol we all want to hug Bruce.**

**Erudessa-gabrielle: Lol that went along with the "etc." plus given the people in the group it's automatic that there would be a gym.**

**BasicallyComplicated: Lol awesome**

**I'm A Multifandom Kinda Girl: Wow, I'm honored that this is your favorite Avengers fic. Thank you. I'm glad you like it.**

**Also on a completely different topic: I have a Lucid Dreaming blog if anyone is interested the link is on my profile. (Along with the link to my story blog) I discuss techniques and methods as well as how to do things and my own experiences ^_^ If you don't know what lucid dreaming is you should look it up. In short: It's when you control your dreams and can do whatever you want. Seriously ANYTHING. Flying, magic, super powers, sex with your idol or a made up character (ie someone from the Avengers), ANYTHING.**

**I'm so heartbroken over Robin Williams death Q-Q.  
**

* * *

Rikku woke up on the couch and sat up. The TV was off but the DVD player was still going. She figured that Steve had figured out how to turn off the TV but not the DVD player. She got up, turned it off and walked into the kitchen and saw the glasses in the sink, and the pizza box and beer bottle on the counter. She washed the glasses and put them away before going into her bathroom to take a shower. She had just got out of the shower when someone knocked on her door.

"Jarvis, who's at the door?" Rikku asked as she pulled on a black robe that came up to her mid-thigh.

"Steve Roger's, Ma'am." He replied. Rikku put her towel around her neck and went to the door. She opened it and Steve quickly looked away from her, a blush rising to his cheeks.

"So-Sorry." He said quickly. "I didn't realize-"

"It's okay Steve." Rikku said. "I'm covered." Even so, he didn't look back at her.

"Um, Thor is going to arrive in an hour with Jane Foster." He said.

"Jarvis could've told me that." Rikku said with a confused look. Steve slowly looked back at her.

"I know; I wanted to apologize for leaving you on the couch last night." Rikku laughed and he blinked.

"Sorry for laughing; you don't have to apologize for that." She said with a smile. He nodded.

"Right, sorry." He said with a slight chuckle. "I uh- I'll see you upstairs." He said pointing up. Rikku nodded and he turned around. Rikku held in a chuckle as she closed the door.

* * *

She got dressed in tan shorts that went to her knees and a dark green tank top. She went to her door and pulled on her black boots before leaving to go upstairs. She stepped off the elevator and saw Tony, Pepper, Steve and Bruce all around the kitchen table/isle and Natasha and Clint were at their computer stations. Tony saw Rikku and smiled.

"Thor and Jane should be here within the hour, I've instructed Jarvis to allow them access and to provide help in getting up here." Tony said. Rikku walked over and sat on a stool next to Bruce who was standing. Her tail swung and brushed against his hand. He looked at her and figured she didn't mean to do it until she smiled at him. He blinked and gave a shy smile.

"So they should be here around lunch time." Pepper said. "Lunch will be in one hour, no one is allowed in this kitchen until then."

"Can I help make lunch?" Rikku asked with a smile.

"Sure." Pepper said returning the smile with a nod. "Everyone else, shoo."

"Alright, you girls cook, Banner and I will be in the lab, everyone else can go to the gym, the pool, whatever." Tony said with a shrug before walking to his elevator. Everyone dispersed and Pepper and Rikku started making lunch.

* * *

An hour later the elevator dinged and the two women looked over to see Thor and Jane step out.

"Hey." Rikku said with a wave. Thor was holding Jane's suitcase and waved with his other hand. He wasn't wearing his normal attire; Rikku figured that Jane had made Thor wear normal clothes.

"Greetings Lady Potts, Lady Saito." Thor said. "This is Jane Foster." Jane waved with a smile. Rikku walked over.

"Okay one: Thor, call me Rikku." She said looking up at him before looking at Jane. "And Two: nice to meet you. Rikku Saito." The two girls shook hands.

"Nice to meet you." Jane said after blinking at Rikku's ears. Pepper walked over.

"I can show you to your quarters, Rikku can you finish making the food?"

"Sure." Rikku walked back to the kitchen.

"You have a tail." Jane said. Rikku looked back at her with a smile.

"Yep." She said, her tail swinging from side to side. "Kinda comes with the whole cat girl thing." Jane blinked again before smiling.

"That's pretty cool."

"Thanks." Rikku said with a big grin. Jane took her suitcase from Thor then told him to stay and catch up with Rikku. The two woman left and Thor walked over into the kitchen with heavy footsteps. He noticed a bowl of chips and reached in to take one when Rikku swatted at his hand with her oven mitt. Thor pulled his hand back and held it in his other, obviously not hurt, and looked at Rikku with confusion. "Those are to go with lunch." Rikku said. Thor frowned slightly. Rikku hesitated. "Okay you can have _a few_." Thor smiled and grabbed a handful. "Or a lot." Rikku muttered. Thor munched on the chips while Rikku finished preparing lunch.

"It is good to see you again Lady-" Rikku glanced back at him. "- Rikku." He finished with a smile.

"You too." Rikku said back with a smile. "How's… your little brother?" Rikku asked softly. Thor sighed.

"He's… in Asgard's most secure prison." Thor said.

"I'm sorry."

"When I visit him he…" Thor hesitated. Rikku turned to face him.

"He what?" She asked. "You can talk to me." She added with a kind smile.

"He often asks about… the… 'feline with the temper'." Thor said. Rikku blinked then frowned.

"I don't have a temper." She said crossing her arms. She unfolded her arm and her frown lessened. "Do I?" She asked. Thor opened his mouth to respond and was eternally grateful when Pepper returned with Jane. Pepper walked into the kitchen.

"Everything looks good." She said with a smile. "Jarvis, call everyone for lunch."

"Right away, Miss Potts." The AI said.

"Jane, you wanna help us set the table?" Rikku asked with a smile. Jane nodded.

"Sure." She said walking over to help. She looked at Thor who moved to help as well upon her silent command.

* * *

"Now that everyone is here and has moved in," Tony said to everyone at the dinner table as everyone was finishing up lunch. "I say we go on a road trip." He said with a smirk.

"A road trip?" Natasha asked.

"To where?" Steve asked.

"I was thinking Florida. I heard the beaches are lovely this time of year." Tony said with a smile.

"You want us to take a road trip to Florida." Clint asked cocking an eyebrow.

"It was all Pepper's idea." Tony said quickly. Pepper gave him a look.

"I think it would be fun." Rikku said with a smile. Natasha shrugged.

"It would be nice to go on a vacation." Jane said with a nod. Rikku giggled.

"Isn't this a vacation for you though?" Rikku asked. Jane smiled and nodded with a small giggle of her own that made Thor smile.

"It was mostly my idea." Tony said. Pepper rolled her eyes. "I already bought an RV for the trip." Tony said with a smile.

"You got an RV?" Natasha asked with an amused smirk.

"How else did you expect us to get there?" Tony asked. "Unless S.H.I.E.L.D has invented an actual clown car." He stopped for a moment. "They haven't, have they?" Natasha rolled her eyes and he smirked.

"Well, you all have fun." Bruce said with a slight smile and a half chuckle. "You're not getting me in a small RV."

"Who said it was small?" Tony asked with a smirk.

"Knowing you, it probably has its own zip code." Natasha said.

"Still." Bruce said shaking his head. "Closed spaces are not my friends." Bruce said.

"Aww." Rikku whined turning in her seat to face him. "Please Bruce?" Rikku asked. "It'll be fun." She said holding his wrist with her hands. "Come on." Bruce hesitated.

"Uhh..." He glanced around the table slightly.

"It won't be that long in the RV." Tony said waving his hand. "I already booked a few hotel rooms and you'll have your own room." Rikku gave Bruce 'puppy dog eyes', sticking out her bottom lip in the cutest way.

"Fine." He said with a sigh.

"Yes!" Rikku cheered before hugging Bruce's arm. "Oh sorry." she said quickly moving back with a giggle. He chuckled slightly.

"It's okay." He said to her.

"Great. Everyone else good?" Tony asked looking around the table. Everyone nodded or shrugged. "Alright." Tony said with a grin. "We leave in tomorrow. Get packing." Tony said before getting up and walking away. Pepper rolled her eyes and got up to start cleaning up along with Natasha.

"This… Florida," Thor said. "What is so great about it?" He asked Jane. She chuckled and explained while everyone else started cleaning up.

* * *

The next day everyone was waiting outside Avengers' Tower with their suitcases waiting for Tony to pull up with the RV. It was only a few minutes until a rather large RV pulled up. Tony honked the horn with a grin. He opened the door.

"Well come on." He called before sitting back in the driver's seat. Pepper got on, put her bags away then sat in the passenger's seat. Rikku got on with her bags followed by Thor who had his bags and Jane's; he insisted he carry Jane's things. Rikku put her bag away and walked up to Tony.

"Are you driving the whole way?" She asked.

"I'll drive most of the way. Jarvis will for the rest."

"You hooked up Jarvis to this thing?" Rikku asked with a chuckle. Tony nodded with a smirk.

"Of course."

"I see more trips in our future." Rikku said. Tony chuckled and ruffled her hair making her give him a playful glare while she fixed it. Everyone got on and put their bags away. Bruce was the last to get on. Rikku smiled at him. He smiled back and put his bag away. He sat down next to Steve and Clint who were at the table in the back. Natasha was leaning against the kitchen sink, Jane and Thor were on the small couch near the front, Rikku walked into the back and looked through a door where a bedroom was.

"That reminds me." Tony said loudly as he closed the door. "A few rules." He said turning to face everyone. "There_ is_ a bedroom back there, two people at a time, no sex," Rikku and Steve, the only virgins present, blushed. "It shouldn't take long to get there so I doubt anyone will really need it."

"Tony it should take about a whole day to get there." Rikku said. He looked at her. "Traffic, gas." She said raising her eyebrows.

"Point taken... Just take turns." Tony said before getting back in the driver's seat. He started to drive off and Jane and Thor moved over and Jane motioned for the Rikku to sit down next to her.

* * *

Clint, Natasha, Steve, and Tony were playing cards at the table while Jarvis controlled the RV – thank god Tony had tinted windows or he would've freaked out a lot of drivers. Pepper was reading a book in the passenger's seat, Thor and Jane slept in the back and Rikku and Bruce sat on the couch watching a movie on the flat screen on the opposite wall. Tony looked over at them and nudged Steve with a smirk. Steve looked at him and Tony pointed at the two. Steve looked over, causing Clint and Natasha to look over as well, and saw that at some point Bruce had put his arm around Rikku's shoulders and she was leaning against him. At first his arm had been on the back of the couch behind her but when she moved closer to him he subconsciously moved it. It looked like Rikku was falling asleep. Bruce looked down at Rikku as her head slowly came to rest on his shoulder. He smiled and brushed her hair out of her face. She moved her head against him more in her sleep.

* * *

Rikku and Bruce were jerked away by loud music. Bruce's arm tightened around Rikku instinctively and the two heard Tony laughing.

"Bout time you two love-birds woke up." He laughed. The two blushed and looked at each other before blushing more and moving away.

"Sorry." The two said in unison before looking at each other.

"We're almost at the hotel." Tony called back from the driver's seat. Rikku looked out the window and saw it was still dark, a few hours before the sun would come up.

"We slept that long?" Rikku asked.

"You looked comfortable." Tony said with a shrug.

"So you wake us with loud music?" Bruce asked. Tony just smirked.

* * *

Tony parked the RV in the back and everyone got off with their bags. Tony checked in as everyone took the elevators up to their floor. Tony came up a few minutes later and handed out the room keys. The girls were sharing two rooms that were connected with Pepper and Rikku in one room and Jane and Natasha in the other. Then the guys were split among three rooms with Bruce getting his own room next to Tony and Steve. Meaning Clint and Thor were sharing a room that wasn't connected to any of the others.

"Get some rest, tomorrow we hit the beach." Tony said with a big grin.

* * *

**So road trip… good idea? Bad idea? I have a few sub ideas for this little section of the story. As Tony said above the beach is one of them. I'll make a post on my blog with all my ideas (not in detail just bullet points) See my profile for the blog link. (Give me about an hour to do the post though cause I haven't made it yet.)**

** If anyone has any requests/ideas, I give credit, just PM me. (I would prefer you not review to send in the ideas cause then it wouldn't be a surprise to everyone else.)**

**Please review. ^_^**


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Guest: That sounds like a great idea. I've never been so I'll have to do some research about it first though. **

* * *

Rikku laid her towel out on the warm sand and stuck an umbrella into the sand. After a second it shifted in the sand and started to fall. Rikku frowned and fixed it before it shifted again.

"Damn it." She muttered. She looked around for a rock or something to keep it in place. "Hey Thor!" The thunder god looked up from setting up Jane's towel and looked over at Rikku. "Could I borrow your hammer?" Thor raised an eyebrow but walked over with the hammer. "My umbrella won't stay up. I figured since nothing can move your hammer it would be able to keep it up." Thor nodded and put his hammer down at the base of the umbrella to keep it upright.

"There you go." He said with a smile.

"Thanks." Rikku said with a big smile. He nodded.

"Of course." He said before walking over to Jane.

* * *

Rikku was sitting on a towel on the sand a good 20ft from the water. There was a small umbrella shading her from the sun. She was in a light t-shirt and a pair of shorts with a ball cap on to cover her ears. Jane was sunbathing with Natasha nearby. Tony and Pepper were in the water along with Steve who was racing against Thor. Clint was putting sunscreen on Natasha's back and Bruce had gone to get drinks.

Rikku sat with her knees to her chest and her arms around her legs. She watched everyone before her ear twitched hearing Bruce. She turned and saw him coming over with a cooler. He put it down near her towel before sitting down.

"Not going in the water?" He asked. Rikku shook her head.

"Didn't bring a suit. Besides the whole cat plus water thing."

"Right." Bruce said with a chuckle. "Well, do you mind if I keep you company?" He asked with a cute smile.

"Sure." Rikku said smiling back.

"I'm guessing the beach isn't really your thing." Bruce said.

"Well besides the whole water thing it's too hot." Rikku said picking up a small fan electric and pointing it at her face. Bruce chuckled.

"Yeah."

"Hey Kitty!" The two looked over at Tony.

"What?" Rikku called back as Tony started walking over.

"Afraid of the water?" He asked.

"Uh hello, cat?" She said. He chuckled.

"Seriously?" He asked. Rikku nodded. "I'll give you 10 bucks if you go in the water."

"Really rich guy? 10?"

"Fine 100 bucks." Tony said. Rikku shook her head.

"Not happening." She said. "There's no way in hell I'm getting in that water." She said.

"Hmm.." Tony looked to be thinking. "I know one way to get you in." He said. Rikku rolled her eyes.

"How?" She asked.

"Like this!" He said before picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder.

"Hey!" Rikku yelped. Bruce quickly got up.

"_Stark_." He said sternly following Tony who was making his way to the water.

"Tony, don't you dare!" Rikku yelled. By now the others were looking over. "Tony!" Rikku let out a small scream as Tony threw her in the water. Bruce, not far behind, went in and picked her up out of the water. Rikku coughed and sputtered out water, clinging to Bruce as he carried her out. Pepper slapped Tony's arm and started chewing him out about throwing Rikku in the water against her will. Bruce brought Rikku back over to her towel and put her down.

"Are you alright?" He asked moving the hair out of her face. She nodded, still coughing slightly.

"I can't... I can't swim." She said. Bruce had a hand on the side of her head. He grabbed a nearby folded towel and wrapped it around her. He stroked her head slightly; her hat had fallen off in the water. He frowned and turned to look at Tony who was getting scolded by Pepper. Bruce got up with a scowl and marched over to him.

"What the hell was that?!" He yelled. Everyone looked over at the out-burst. Rikku quickly scrambled up and ran over, the towel falling in the process. She grabbed the back of Bruce's wet shirt.

"Bruce it's okay!" She said. He turned to look at her. His eyes were fading from brown to green.

"No it's not he-!"

"Bruce, it's fine! He didn't know. Please..." She took his hand. "I'm okay." Rikku said softly. The green faded back to brown and Bruce swallowed. He looked around and saw everyone was watching him carefully.

"I'll be in the RV." He mumbled before walking away, reluctantly pulling his hand from Rikku's.

* * *

Rikku ran after Bruce and met him at the RV.

"Bruce?" He glanced back at her with one foot up on the step. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." He said. "The Other Guy is kinda protective of you." Bruce said quietly before getting onto the RV. Rikku followed. Bruce sat at the table in the back.

"Are you?" Rikku asked, leaning against the wall.

"What?" Bruce looked up from the table.

"Are you protective of me?" Rikku asked slipping into the booth. He glanced at her.

"Yeah." He said.

"Why?" Rikku asked moving closer.

"Cause..." He said with a shy smile.

"Well.. thank you." Rikku said. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. Rikku got up and Bruce watched her go with a small smile.

* * *

Rikku walked off the RV and Pepper walked up.

"Hey, we're having a girl's day out." She said.

"Um okay." Rikku said blinking. "Tony will drop us off at the car rental place then he and the guys will do their own thing while we do ours." Pepper said. Rikku nodded.

"Okay."

"Then tomorrow night Tony wants to go to a club and have some drinks."

"I'll sit that one out." Rikku said with a chuckle.

"Nope, everyone. Tony's even making Steve go." Rikku chuckled.

"Alright." she said. "I'll go for Steve's sake."

* * *

Pepper drove the rental car with Natasha in the passenger's and Jane and Rikku in the back. They parked outside a Kohl's.

"Okay," Pepper turned in her seat. "No budget but don't go crazy." She said holding up one of Tony's credit cards.

"Please tell me he_ gave_ that to you." Jane said.

"Of course." Pepper said before getting out of the car.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Rikku said to Jane with a chuckle as they got out.

* * *

They walked into the store and were grateful for the AC.

"Okay, meet back here when you're done." Pepper said. "After, we're going to go to the nail salon a few stores down." Pepper added with a smile before walking over to the shoes. Natasha and Jane walked towards the swim suits leaving Rikku to walk around by herself.

After shopping the four went to the nail salon and Jane and Rikku ended up getting just manicures, Pepper got a mani-pedi with Natasha. Jane got golden colours, Pepper got red, Natasha got black and Rikku got dark green.

* * *

The girls pulled up to the hotel at the same time Tony and the guys were getting out of their car. Tony winced seeing how many bags the girls had as they got out. Bruce went up to Rikku and gently tapped her shoulder. Rikku turned and smiled at him.

"If you want, I can teach you to swim tonight." Bruce said with a smile. "In the pool." He added quickly. Rikku nodded.

"Sure." She said with a big smile. "Thanks."

"I'll come by your room in two hours."

"Okay." Rikku said. Bruce nodded with a smile. He noticed Rikku's nails and chuckled.

"You… got them done green?" He looked at her.

"Mhm." She hummed with a smile. "For you and the big guy." She said with a wink and a chuckle. Bruce could feel the Other Guy's happiness and couldn't help but smile and chuckle back.

* * *

Rikku put the things she'd gotten away in her suit case in the room she shared with Pepper before she walked through the door joining the rooms.

"Hey, does anyone have a swim suit I can borrow?" Rikku asked Natasha and Jane who were putting their things away.

"Here." Natasha said tossing Rikku a bag.

"What's this?" Rikku asked looking in and seeing a black and white two piece suit.

"We got it for you when we went shopping." Jane said.

"We know you don't swim but you don't have to swim in it." Natasha said.

"Why do you need it now anyway?" Jane asked with a smirk.

"Uh.." Rikku blushed. "Bruce is gunna try to teach me to swim." The two smirked. "What?" Rikku asked.

"Nothing." The two said in unison. Rikku rolled her eyes and went into the bathroom to put the suit on under her clothes.

* * *

There was a knock at the girl's door and Rikku ran to open it before Pepper could get up. Rikku opened it and Bruce smiled.

"Ready?" He asked holding up a towel. Rikku nodded.

"Yeah." She said.

* * *

The two went down to the indoor pool, there was no one there but it was still unlocked. Bruce took off his shirt and Rikku had to resist staring as he threw it over onto a chair. Bruce got into the water and shivered slightly, it was a bit cold.

"Come on." Bruce said. He was standing in the water up to his chest. Rikku hesitated and slowly walked to the edge of the pool. She took off her shirt and Bruce's breath hitched in his throat as she threw her shirt over with his. He swallowed hard when she bent over to take off her shorts. He was suddenly very grateful for the cold water as he got a full view of cleavage before Rikku stood up. She looked down at the water and Bruce walked over to the edge. "You don't have to." He said looking up at her. She shook her head and sat down on the edge, her legs in the water. She also shivered from the cold. She moved forward and Bruce put his hands on her waist as she slipped in, the water was at the top of her legs. Her tail automatically moved up to avoid getting wet and her hands clung to his shoulders. "Don't worry, I got you." He said softly.

"It's cold." Bruce chuckled as he backed up bring Rikku into the deeper water. Her hands were gripping his shoulders and her palms dug into his chest.

"You're doing good." He said. Rikku's tail got wet and she went rigid. Her nails dug into his back. "You're okay." He said softly holding back a hiss of slight pain. He backed up into the water more so the water was up to his chest again and his feet were still on the ground. If Rikku were to stand it would be up to her neck. "Now just kick your legs and tread water." Rikku swallowed and nodded before doing just that. "You're doing great." Bruce said with a smile. Rikku smiled back. "Now I'm going to let go-" Rikku shook her head rapidly and her nails dug into Bruce's back more. He tried to ignore the slight pleasure he got from it and swallowed. "Don't worry. I won't let you go under. Just move your arms from front to back." He slowly let her go and she tried to move her arms but Bruce had to pick her up out of the water again. Rikku wrapped her arms around his neck and held herself against him.

"I changed my mind." She said into his neck. "Cat's don't like water even if they _can_ swim, at least not this cat." She whimpered. Her legs went around his waist making him swallow hard as he put his arms around her back.

"Alright, that's enough for one day." Bruce said before walking out of the water, still holding Rikku who was clinging to him for dear life. "We're out of the water." Bruce whispered.

"I-I know." Rikku said into his neck before putting her legs down. She slowly removed her arms from around his neck and he let her go. "I'm sorry about your back." She said looking down at her hands and seeing little spots of blood on the tips as her nails retracted.

"It's no big deal." He said before petting her head. "Come on, let's dry you off." Bruce said before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around Rikku. He rubbed up and down her arms and noticed her face going pink. He chuckled nervously and stopped. "Sorry." He said before letting Rikku dry herself. Bruce walked over and pulled on his shirt before picking up Rikku's clothes. He handed Rikku her clothes and held her towel while she got dressed. "I'll walk you to your room." He said. Rikku nodded. The two started walking back inside. "Would you want to try again tomorrow or-?" Bruce asked.

"Maybe." Rikku said quietly giving him a smile. He smiled back.

* * *

They stood outside Rikku and Pepper's room and turned to face each other.

"Uh well, goodnight." He said.

"Goodnight." Rikku went on her toes and kissed his cheek. He swallowed and smiled shyly. She did the same before going into her room. Bruce let out a breath and checked his pulse by putting two fingers to his neck. He sighed before going to his room.

* * *

Rikku walked into the room and was about to go into the bathroom to shower when she noticed Jane and Natasha sitting on one of the beds while Pepper was reading in the other.

"So how'd it go?" Jane asked

"You weren't gone long." Natasha said.

"Uh, I kinda freaked out in the water and clawed his back a bit." Rikku said with a sheepish smile. The two women smirked making Rikku blush. "I'm gunna take a shower." Rikku said before quickly going into the bathroom and shutting the door. She leaned against the door and let out a sigh.

* * *

**What did you think? ^_^**


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers/its characters/anything from the movie. I own my OC, her plot, background, etc. And any changes/ things added to the movie plot. **

**Sorry this took so long.**

* * *

After another day at the beach, this time having a few volley ball games, the group returned to the hotel to shower. Tony pulled up to the hotel in a second rental car and everyone got into the two cars: Pepper driving the girls and Tony drove the guys. Pepper followed Tony to a club he'd found.

Everyone got out of the cars and Rikku made sure her hat was on securely before straightening out her white short shorts and tank top over her tail.

As they entered the bar Bruce nudged Rikku. She looked up at him.

"You look nice." He said with a smile. Rikku blushed and smiled back shyly.

"Thanks." She said.

* * *

About an hour later Thor was having his fourth drinking contest, of course the thunder god could drink a lot more than the average mortal; he was just starting to get buzzed. Natasha and Clint were playing pool, Steve, Pepper, Jane and Tony were dancing in a crowd of people. Rikku was sitting at the opposite end of the bar from Thor, sipping a drink. Bruce had been keeping her company with small talk but he'd left to go to the bathroom allowing a man to sit next to Rikku.

"Can I just say, I think you are really attractive." The man said. Rikku glanced at the guy; he had short spiky blond hair and brown eyes. She looked away and took a sip of her drink. "You wanna dance?" The guy asked.

"No thank you." Rikku said without looking at him. He frowned.

"Come on, one dance." He said. "I promise you won't regret it." He said putting his hand on her bare leg. Before she could turn to yell at him he was pulled off the stool.

"You're in my seat." Bruce said gritting his teeth.

"Sorry, man, didn't know she was taken." The guy said holding his hands up in surrender before leaving. Bruce sat down on the stool and Rikku looked at him. She noticed the green in his eyes and put a hand on his and gave it a light squeeze. He looked at her and the green faded away. Rikku smiled at him.

"Thanks." She said. He nodded before looking away. "You wanna dance?" He looked at her.

"Uh.." he smiled cutely. "I don't dance."

"Then I'll teach you." Rikku said hopping off her stool and taking the hand she was still holding and pulled him off his.

"Wai- Rikku I-" Bruce tried to say but Rikku pulled him onto the dance floor. Bruce swallowed as Rikku started dancing close to him. His breathing quickened as she boldly danced against him. He swallowed hard and put his hands on her hips. She felt her cheeks heat up but kept dancing as he began to. Bruce lowered his head and his lips were right by her neck and she heard a low growl sound from his throat. He pressed himself against her back. Rikku looked back at him and saw a slight hint of green in his eyes. His hands gripped her hips more and she let out a small gasp feeling something hard pressed against her back. Her heart skipped a beat when he let out a groan in her ear. She looked back at him again.

"Bruce." She said. She turned around and he held her against him as she slipped her hands into the back of his shirt and slightly scratched him. He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath. He opened his eyes and there was more green in them. Rikku swallowed. She reached up to feel his pulse before she leaned up and put her lips to his ear. "Bruce, I'm not trying to suggest anything but I think we should leave before anything happens." She felt a rumbled against her chest from his and he nodded. She took his hand and led him through the crowd to the exit. He made sure she was close to him.

* * *

They got outside and Rikku pulled Bruce into the alley next to the club.

"Bruce I didn't mean to get you riled up." Rikku said putting hands on his face. His eyes were a mixed of green and a little brown. He suddenly had her against the wall. Rikku gasped as he ground himself against her. "Bruce." Her arms went around his neck and clawed his back. He let out a growl of pleasure and pressed his lips to her neck before lifting her legs to put the around his waist. Rikku gasped as he bit her neck gently. She pulled herself against him more. He kissed up her neck and jaw before he let his lips hover over hers but not touching. He looked into her eyes as he panted.

"Rikku." He gasped out. He blinked. "Oh go- I'm sorry." Rikku frowned and bit her bottom lip as Bruce put her down and took a step back. "I shouldn't take advantage of-"

"Bruce, I'm not drunk I know what I'm doing." Rikku said.

"Even so it's too dangerous. I-I shouldn't be doing this." He felt his neck for his pulse before taking a few 'calming breaths'. Rikku walked up to him and put her arms around his neck. He swallowed and put his hands on her hips instinctively.

"If you don't want an emotional attachment just think of me as stress relief." Rikku said looking down slightly. Bruce lifted her chin.

"You'd never be just stress relief to me." He said before leaning down and kissing her. Rikku pulled herself closer as he did. He groaned as Rikku opened her mouth and let him slip his tongue in. He walked forward so she was against the wall again and couldn't help bucking his hips against her making her gasp. He pulled away and put his forehead against hers. She opened her eyes and looked at him, panting slightly.

"What's wrong?"

"I… I can't do this." He said. Rikku frowned. "It's too dangerous for you." He whispered. "I can't get too excited or else…" Rikku looked into his eyes and saw green fading in and out. She put her head against his chest and heard his heart beating rapidly. "I'm sorry." He whispered. Rikku shook her head against his chest. She leaned up and kissed his rapid pulse making him take a sharp intake of breath. She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. The green was still fading in and out but it seemed to be slowing. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'm-I'm so sorry about this."

"It's okay Bruce." Rikku said before swallowing hard. Bruce took a step back away from her. "I'm uh- I'm gunna go back inside." Rikku said before running out of the alley. She was so embarrassed.

"Wait- Rikku I-!" Bruce sighed as she rounded the corner. He let out another breath and hit the wall. "Damn it…"

* * *

**I originally had the club scene end with the two going to the hotel and having sex but I figured it was too early (That and I forgot he can't really have sex cause he can't let his heart beat too fast) so that'll happen on another road trip(I'll figure out how to make it work) ^_^**

**I've been procrastinating with this story and I'm sorry. I've also yet to look up Disney land and its rides and such…**


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